


Time, Death, Life

by Athena8472



Series: Fleeting Eternity [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Female Harry Potter, M/M, Master of Death Harry Potter, Multi, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Bond, Rituals, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 01:38:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 55,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5315357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Athena8472/pseuds/Athena8472
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a civil war, a global war, then an interstellar war, Harry flees her reality. She had only one chance and she can only hope to succeed or die trying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter or Torchwood.

**Chapter 1**

**Hogwarts, 2453**

Harry sat on a rock looking over the Black Lake as she observed the ruins of Hogwarts. The Forbidden Forest has taken over most of the ground over the last 400 years since its destructing. It stood as a monument to the darkest time in magical history when war with the Muggles led to its destruction.

Harry as the Master of Death had watched her world crumble and change, and there had been many places of her youth that had been taken by Time, but neither Time nor Death would take her.  She had become the silent watcher looking on as Time passed around her but leaving her untouched, it was her curse to bare as the Master of Death. She watched as her Godson grew from the happy baby she raised, to the devoted Father that married his schoolyard sweetheart, to the Soldier that fought and died for the freedom of Magic. However, now that Teddy had died and his children and then their children she felt her ties to this world slowly break along with her heart.

However, Harry has not sat idly by as her world changed. She had fought in the two wars that had come due to the revelation of the Magical World, and it was those horrors that she had witnessed that had led her to find a way to leave her reality.

She had all her earthly possessions in a trunk that had been shrunk and sealing into a rune array that was inked into her skin. Her holly wand had finally been destroyed around 300 years ago in a fire that should have killed her, but as the Master of Death, she was forced to come back and pick up the pieces of her life. Magical technology had advanced in that last one hundred and fifty years due to the cooperation of the Magi, as her people were now known, and the Mundane, after the end of the last war. So now she used a clear Generator quartz crystal as her main foci. The crystal was attached to the silver bracelet and enhanced with runes. She still had the Deathly Hollows as they would never leave her side for long. She wore the stone on her right thumb, the wand was in a dragon hide holster on her left arm, and she had the cloak sealed into her left palm.

She wore a burgundy leather trench coat made from the Basilisk that she had slain, along with dragon hide boots that had been gifted to her by Charlie Weasley on her 23rd birthday, which had been that last day she had aged as she came into her magical inheritance. She wore a form-fitting magi-tech jumpsuit under her trench coat that allowed her cast magic from every part of her body. Her glasses were long gone; she had fixed her eyes centuries ago.

With a sigh, Harry rose from the rock and gave one last goodbye to the last reminder of her Time. She then turned on her foot and with a small pop Harry apparated to the entrance of the Department of Mysteries. The location had been lost to time, and only she knew where the original British Ministry was after its destruction and collapse in 2020, and that had been one of the opening salvos of the First Magi War.

Although Harry had been to Department of Mysteries before it was only a faint memory and she had to use her occumency to remember the way to the Death Chamber. While Harry had researched the effects of the Veil of Death, she was not completely sure what would happen when she went through, but there were only three options. Death, nothing, or it would transport her to another place.

As she came to the Death Chamber, she could hear the whispers from the Veil. They pulled her forwards and almost in a trance she walked up the platform. Harry came to the Veil, closed her eyes and left herself fall through.

What greeted her when she opened her eyes was a white version was King's Cross, it was her version of the crossroads to Death. However, the last time that she had been here she had been seventeen, and she had just let Voldemort kill her.

She looked around to find a man in a black suit sitting on a bench, and he was waving her over. She walked over and sat down next to him.

He was quite unnervingly beautiful with short, messy raven black hair and green eyes that matched her own. Everything was perfect about him, in fact, you could have folded him in half, and both sides would match. The man looked like her healthier, and beautiful twin. Harry would have mistaken him for her father if not for green eyes.

“Hello, Harriett.” The man greeted.

“Hello, Death.” Harry instinctively knowing who he was.

“Well, we are at a bit of an impasse here because normally I would just heal your body then shove your soul back in. In this case that would not work because the Veil completely destroyed your body.” Death said.

“So I’m finally dead.” The relief was palatable in her voice.

“No.”

And with that one word her hopes were dashed. Tears of frustration built up in her eyes.

“As you are my Master I cannot take your soul,” he explained “But as you have quite effectively destroyed your body I can’t send you back. So now you have a choice. I will be creating you a new body but where you go from now is up to you. I can send you back to your home reality, or I can send you somewhere new.”

Harry opened her mouth to answer but was cut off when Death raised his hand.

“Before you make your choice know that you will no longer be Human because your new body will be based off my own being and your first ancestors. This is a new experience for me, and I have no idea how this will affect you. Also if you do choose to leave you will be bound by the laws of that reality.”

Harry’s mind turned, but she already knew that she could never go back, so her choice was already made.

“I will go.” Her voice was resolute even if her mind was not. “I can’t go back not after everything that has happened.”

Death gave her a small smile. “Everything changes; you cannot escape nor run from that fact.”

“How can I stay with the people that essential exterminated my kind. The Magi as they call themselves are a pale shadow of the people that we once were. There is simply too much pain for me to stay, and if I were to stay, I would only be hunted.” Harry said with haunted eyes as she remembered the atrocity that had been committed in her 472 years.

“This new world may not be any better.” Death stated.

“But it would be new.”

Death looked into Harry’s matching eyes and found her determination. Then with a smile, he leaned forwards and kissed her forehead.

“My Master I will grant you your wish for a new start, and I will give you a boon. You will find happiness in this new world in the form of soulmates, but your journey will not be easy.”

Harry felt her body warms as Death’s magic started to flow through her body. She felt her soul begin to leave this realm. She threw her arms around Death’s neck and pulled him into a hug.

She smiled as she whispered into his ear. “Love is never easy, and thank you.”

Her body became pure energy as she was transported away to her new life.

**Cardiff, 1902**

However, when she finally opened her eyes, she found herself in a cell and restrained.

Harry could only feel dread as footsteps approached.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**London 2007 – Torchwood Tower**

It had been 105 years since Harry had come to this reality. She had been found unconscious by an organization called Torchwood. After she had woken up in the cell she had been so weak and unused to her new body that they had been able to contain her once she had tried to use her magic in her first of many escape attempts. Over the years her restrains had become more elaborate as her magic adapted to the technology.

The reality wasn’t really all that different then her original one, although there were some obviously glaring differences. One, there were no Magi here because there was no way that an institution headed by the Queen wound not know, there was however Magic though weak she could still feel it. Second there were aliens seemingly everywhere, as far as she knew there had been no contact with aliens in her home reality until the Arcturans in 2120. Third was soul marks, in this reality the majority of the population had the name of person or persons that were their most compatible with. The marks could present anywhere on the skin, but from what she understood soulmates would have their mark in the same spot, and not every soul bond was romantic, a soulmate was just someone that you were compatible with. Even she had one now, it was on her left inner wrist and even though it did blend into the sealing arrays she had managed to scrap together enough power to place a small glamor on it. She didn’t want her soulmates to get dragged into this insanity.   

Her prisons had advanced from restraining collars, drugs, and whatever else they could cobble together, to a completely white, plastic cell in the underground prison of Torchwood Tower. Once they learned she could channel her magic through metal she had been transferred to her plastic prison. There were also energy dampeners and drainers throughout her cell, and she would give Torchwood props because the energy that they drained from her went into powering some sort of energy field that kept her from just unlocking a door or apparate out. The air in her cell was forcibly pulled out so that the pheromones she produced couldn’t affect her guards, it had only taken two escape attempts before they realised what was going on. Then there was the fact that all her guards had to wear reflective glasses to that she couldn’t influence them with Legilimency. 

The first 8 or so years in this reality had been hellish, the Torchwood operatives and scientist had been cruel in her treatment. It had been years of pain and torture, if not for her occumency she would have lost her mind especially since they had discovered her immortality. However after 20 years she had been shoved into a cell and basically forgot until they had some sort of new tech to try out on her.

The only plus side of those first years was what she learned about herself. From what she had been able to put together from what she overheard from the scientists was that her genome was only about 17% Human, the rest was unidentifiable. Death had told her that her new body was based on that of her ancestors, and it made sense in a way that her people were not human. There were just too many strange creature that just didn’t fit into Earth’s evolutionary chain. It was likely that her people had traveled to Earth as refugees, and then they and the creature that they had brought bread into Earth species. It would explain their human-like appearances, and where the stories of High-elves came from because there was no Magical history of them nor evidence that they had ever truly existed.

Harry’s hair was still black, and she still have the same unnatural green eyes, and her aristocratic bone structure but that was where the similarities ended. She now had the unnatural beauty that Death had, and her body was no longer scrawny and damaged due to malnourishment. She was about five foot eight, dainty, and had a body that most people would kill for. Harry pale skin seemed to almost glow with an inner light, and she had a beauty that was comparable with a Veela. Harry would say that she was almost Elf like, and she figured that this is what her ancestors had once looked like.

Her new body wasn’t only cosmetically different. She was physically stronger, and her senses heightened, it had almost driven her crazy before she had learned to control them. She also produced potent pheromones that were a weaker version of the pheromones that Veela produced, and she could really sympathies with Fleur. Harry was annoyed with men simply hitting on her, she couldn’t imaging the hell it would have been to have men instantly turn into slobbering idiots. Her psychic abilities were also more developed, she was now an empath, and a master Legilimens and though she had had those skills in her last body they were not where near as powerful as they were now. She kept them under tight control because it was very easy for her to become lost in her new skills, the first year in this reality she had been lost in her mind, and it had taken almost 50 years before she stopped slipping.

Although Death had changed her appearance he thankfully kept her alterations to her body. So her arms were still inked with the sealing arrays, so she knew that when she escaped that she would be able to provide for herself.

Over the years she had formed small friendships with her guards and some of the junior techs that were assigned to her. She had been there long enough that some of the junior techs now were now more influential, and this led Harry to get some minor luxuries such as a newspaper every other day.

When Harry awoke that morning she changed into a new set of white prison scrubs, then sat on the floor of her cell waiting for her food for the day. It only took minutes for the sound of the push cart, and then steady footsteps of her newest caretaker, Michel. One of the walls of her cell was open, and it almost teased her with the thought of just being able to walk out but she knew that there was a force field there. She stood and moved to the opposite wall from the force field as was her daily routine. She watched as Michel use a devise that disrupted a small enough section of the field so that he could push through her meal.

As soon as the force field was back in place Harry moved forwards to get her food. She sat back down on the floor as there was no chair and she didn’t want to accidentally get food on her bed. The cell was basically bare, only a toilet, sink, and bed.

“Good morning Michel.” Harry greeted in between bits of her food.

“Good morning Angel.” Michel answered with a small smile.

In the 105 years that Harry had been with Torchwood they had never managed to get any information from her. They seemed to think that she was some sort of alien-human hybrid from the future, and while that was true. The future of this reality was unknown to her, so most of what they had asked her she didn’t even have the answers to. However due to her new appearance many over the years had come to think of her as an angel, so they had begun to call her that.

Harry’s attention was called back to Michel he began to talk.

“So there is big news today.” Michel said as he almost vibrated in place. “They brought in the Doctor today. Apparently he came in investigate the Ghost Shifts.”

“Oh, I’m surprised that Yvonne didn’t lock him into the first cell that she could find.”

“She did confiscate the T.A.R.D.I.S.”

_Now that does sound like Yvonne_. Harry thought. Harry lost no love on Yvonne after she had personally oversaw her latest round of interrogating with a mind probe they ‘acquired’.

Michel babbles at her for about half an hour, before he left to complete the rest of his day. She liked Michel he was a cute kid, and a bit naïve but his heart was in the right place. Too bad that he would be transferred soon. They never let her caretaker stay more than 6 months after an escape attempt about 80 years ago when she managed to her caretaker to release her without the use of pheromones. She had killed 7 in that attempt, and then after she had been recaptured she had been forces to what the torturous execution of Kathrine. Then she had been punished by some pretty barbaric experimentation.

Harry’s day carried on as usual as she tried and failed to converse with the newest alien in the cell a crossed from hers. She wasn’t even sure if it could understand her or communicate but anything was better than just staring at the painfully white walls. Sometime after mid-morning experimentation the cells became dead of personnel, and Harry knew that this would mean a Ghost Shift. She hated these simply because she knew that they were no ghost, and she knew that this would not end well for people working here. She could feel it in the air that something bad was happening, whenever the ‘Ghost’ appeared she could feel an echo of the same energy that brought her to this reality.

Harry could feel the energy build, but instead of tapering back down like it normally did it only increased. Harry could see several ‘Ghosts’ in the cells hallway but something was different. Instead of echo of energy she was used to it was almost like the Veil was here in the room with her. That was when she knew that something was coming through the Veil, however the resonance of the energy was not like her reality it was from somewhere else.

Suddenly she could hear the clanking of metal, and the sound of hydraulics. Then as the energy finally build to a peak the Veil parted and metal men came through and marched into formation.

Harry could feel the hair on her neck raise. Whatever these metal men were they were dangerous.

Suddenly they spoke as one “WE ARE THE CYBERMEN! PREPARE TO BE UGRADED!”

They then began to open the cells, yelling “DELETE” before killing any aliens with some sort of laser. The humans were corralled and forced from the room, only those that resisted were killed.

Harry felt anticipation as they can to her cell. It had been too long since she had been in a battle, and in a perverse way she was looking forwards to it. After a civil war, a global war, and then an interstellar war Harry had spent most of her life fighting.

A Cyberman can to her cell and deactivated it. Harry felt a euphoric rush as her magic can poring back.

The Cyberman can into her cell and made to grab her arm, but with a feral grin Harry raised her arm and unleased a blast of magic that fried the thing. The Cyberman stiffened then fell backwards, the sharp smell of short-circuited technology and burnt flesh filled in cell.

Harry raced from her cell as the Cybermen converged on her, but even though she did have a focus she was still able force out pure magic. It didn’t really matter how much magic she used, these Cybermen were not built to withstand even a small amount, not even in her home reality had they found a way to completely shield from it.

Harry moved through the building, following the pull of the Elder Wand. Torchwood had relieved her of her personal effects all those years ago, but she knew that they were never far, partly due to the fact that they had found out that if they removed them too far they would just come back to her.

Harry fought her way through the building stepping over the corpses of Torchwood employees and Cybermen alike. She had to travel up 14 floors to where she assumed that the Archives were.

By the time that she had arrived there the floor was devoid of life, and only the sound of battle on the lower floors could be heard. Harry quickly began to tear through boxes until she found her stuff. Some of it looked quite damaged from the multitude of test that they had run on them, so she pulled her wand out and cast a Reparo on the remains of her clothing, then turned the wand on herself and cast a glamour to appear she had before jumping into the Veil, even if she still looked human her looks attracted too much attention. She then quickly stripped and pulled on her jumpsuit, trench coat, and boots. She then reattached her wand holster, wand included, to her left wrist, the dug through the box for her crystal only to find it destroyed, and like a wand it couldn’t be repaired.

While Harry felt a pang at the loss, she didn’t dwell on it, she still needed to fight her way out. Normally Harry would have just apparated, she had found out the hard way during one of her escape attempts that even if this reality was similar it was slightly different like an off shade of white. The differences in this reality had thrown her off enough that she ending up with her arm in a brick wall. They had to amputate her arm, and that had been a bitch to heal with only limited power, it had taken her almost three months.

Thankfully Harry only had to travel down 6 floors to the main exit. As Harry made her way down she tried to help as many people that she could. Even though they worked for the organization that had imprisoned and experimented on her the last 105 years most of them didn’t even know that she existed. That and the fact that even after all these years she still had a ‘saving people thing’ as Hermione had liked to call it.

Still she wasn’t going to stick around for too long, she knew that she would never had another chance like this to escape.

As she moved down to the lower levels she began to her less gun fire, and soon the only sound that she could hear were two different electronic voice. One was the Cybermen yelling ‘DELETE’ but the other was unknown to her, but it wasn’t any less threating. It was yelling ‘EXTERMINATE’.

By the time that she heard the second metal voice she was on the 4th floor. Not wanting to encounter the owner of the second voice she decided to go through the window and just hope she would be able to decelerate herself enough not to pulverise her legs. Even though she knew that she couldn’t die from whatever was down the next floor it did not sound like something that she would like to experience. So she blasted the window and jumped.

Harry was able to slow herself down enough but she landed wrong and twisted her ankle. Sadly there were not spells that could heal tissues damage in a snap, there were potions but she had not time to dig them out, she also knew that her internal healing would fix her ankle give some time. So Harry limped away from Torchwood Tower, and just before she ducked into the underground she witness all the Cybermen fly forcibly through air back toward the Tower.

With a pained smile Harry knew that she was free once again, and she would finally be able to explore her strange in world.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Cardiff 2007**

The first few days out of her cell Harry had had a hard time, she didn’t know if Torchwood would be able to trace her or even if they could trace the energy that her Magic produced. But after three days of bumming with the homeless and doing resonance on the tower, and waiting for life in the city to continue as normal, she came to the conclusion that Torchwood was in no shape to look for her. So Harry unsealed a small amount of gold and sold it at a pawn shop. Harry then bought a ticket for the first train to Wales she could.

That was how Harry ended up on Cardiff. The reason she came to Wales was to look for one of her soulmates, he had a welsh name but the problem that she ran into was that his name was the Welsh equivalent of ‘John Smith’. Harry wasn’t sure if she could find him, but Cardiff was a good place to start. Harry hadn’t even real tried to look for her second soulmate simply due to the fact that the name was not in any language that she knew, and there weren’t many terrestrial languages that she had learned, or at least could recognize, over the years.

Harry’s first week in Cardiff was spend drifting, just trying to find a place where she could set up in peace and recover. At the end of the week she had managed to find a place just outside the city in a forest called Roundstone Wood, Humans seemed to avoid it because they thought it was bad luck, but Harry knew it was because of the high ambient magic in the area. So Harry set up camp, and warded her tent with the standard anti-muggle charm, she should have used more, but the Humans in her old reality had found a way to trace high concentrations of magic, and she was unsure if Torchwood would also have this ability.

Harry’s tent was more than just her home, it was also a museum and sanctuary for everything magical that she had been able to save from the purges, and massacres. She had had to expand the tent many times so now it was almost the size of Hogwarts and its grounds inside, though the décor was more along the lines of a pureblood’s manor. Inside she had every book, every artifact, every wand, and everything of monetary value that she had been able to gather in her long life. There were times that she felt like a curator to her peoples history, but it wasn’t only inanimate object that she had been able to save because of advancements that she had made to Wizard Space she had found a way of keeping things alive in it even while collapsed. She had several Dragon eggs in stasis, Unicorn, Phoenix, Pegasus, Thestrals, Runespoors, and many other none humanoid creatures. She had also became the refuge for House Elves who’s Masters had been killed, so now her tent was home to a whole colony of them. Her last count was around 62, but in the time that she had been incarcerated the population of all her creatures had at least doubled. Thankfully more than half of the tent was a greenhouse type enclosure that acted as a home for most of her creatures, but it was also self-efficient so that the elves could grow and maintain food. She hadn’t planned to be away from them for so long but she was happy that they had survived if only due to the fact that she had become a bit of a survivalist and hoarder in her old age.

When she re-entered her tent for the first time she had been greeted by a crying army of House Elves. It had taken almost 3 hours to calm them all down and for them to give her a run down on the tent. It took nearly a week to get everything back into working order. There had been many things that had run out but they had made due, so she had had to send out glamoured Elves to sell gold then stock up on everything that they needed. But after everything was said and done she knew that if she had been kept another 5 years she would have opened her tent to find corpses.

After the tent was restocked, she spent her time figuring out the new limits of her body now that she had her magic back. It had taken her a while before she was able to apparate without splinching herself or finding herself half inside a wall or tree.

She had also found a new focus, it was a clear quartz wand that was fitted into a hematite handle that she had made herself. While she had never been able to learn wand making as it knowledge that was passed down through families and all the books on it were blood sealed grimoires, she had been able to learn the older craft of crystal foci. Crystal foci had fallen out of use due to the fact that you had to harvest and crave the stone yourself, and the fact that they were not as flexible with different types of magic. Most crystal users had several different crystals for different types of magic, thankfully clear quartz was the most flexible and resonated well with her magic.

It was nearly a month before she had a chance to explore the forest. She could feel in her bones that it was old, and the creatures that called the forest were even older. Harry wandered the woods for days on and off before she came to a stone circle, and even then she felt as if what ever lived there was letting her find this.

After several days of returning to the stone circle, Harry decided that she would stick around until they showed themselves. So she sat, closed her eyes, and began to meditate. It was hours before anything happened.

With only a soft flutter of magic as a warning, Harry’s eyes snapped open to find tiny fairies floating round her, playing.

“Hello.” Harry greeted, eyeing the fairies. She could see the glimmer of a glamour around them.

“ _We see you, we see you_.” They sung.

Harry removed the glamour knowing that was what they meant. They were both creatures of Olde Magic, they from the Earth, and she from Death.

“Can I see you?” Harry asked.

Before her eyes the fey changed into tall creatures that looked to be made of living wood, with wings, and a fearsome faces. They were not pretty, but there was a beauty to them, like an old gnarled tree.

Harry gave the fairies a smile.

“Do you want to play?” she asked knowing that as fearsome as the fey looked they were only children in heart and mind. Even in her home reality these eternal being would play with all children and protect the ones that they claim. Even she had played with them in her youth, she knew that they would have taken her if not for the fact that she had already been claimed by Fate.

The fey faces lit up with terrifying smiles, before they transformed back into the smaller, lighter forms. So Harry cast a spell meant for young children, it made small balls of multicolour light that would float around, and play with the children. It was a perfect spell for the fey who loved to play, and so Harry played with them for hours.

Harry came back every day for nearly three weeks, and played with them. She had decided that she would not wear a glamour with them. Harry found a peace with the fairies. They were something that she felt familiar with them, and they reminded her of home. As much as Harry denied that her time with Torchwood had damaged her, she knew that she had changed.

Before leaving her home reality she had been hunted because she was a pure-blooded Magi, and ironically when she came to this reality to escape her fate as an experiment, she became one in the hands of Torchwood. When Harry looked back on her life she couldn’t think of a time she was able to feel that she could let her guard completely down. Even now in the safety of the fey, she still felt the need to arm herself, but she felt content to let herself relax as much as she could in her new found freedom.

Then there came a day when she arrived that she knew that something had changed.

“What had happened?” Harry asked.

The fey flitted around, before they began to sing. “ _A child we found. Our Chosen. She will join us. Come, come. We will all play before it is time to go_.”

So Harry followed them, even as they became invisible, and she applied minor glamour so that she could travel through the city without attracting attention. We came to a park with a small wooded area. She followed them in until they came to a clearing with a young girl sitting on the ground who seemed to be crying.

Harry walked over and sat beside her as the fey became visible again and began to sing, trying to cheer the girl up.

The girl sniffled, and tried to wipe away the tear, but she seemed to be at the point where the tears just wouldn’t stop. So Harry conjured a handkerchief and handed to her.

“Hello, my name is Harry Potter, what’s yours?”

The girl took the hanky, and with a sniffle answered. “Jasmine Pearce.”

“Why are you crying Jasmine?” Harry asked.

But with that question Jasmine broke down in tears again. So Harry gathered Jasmine up into her lap and started to sing her an old lullaby in the Olde Language that Andromeda had taught her to calm Teddy down. As Harry sung, the fairies joined in, and soon Jasmine had calmed. Jasmine continued just to sit in Harry’s lap content to listen, and feel loved.

Sometime later after Harry had stop singing, but the fey continued creating a peace in the air, Harry broke the peace.

“So do you want to tell me?” Harry asked in a low voice.

“Mummy doesn’t love me, only Roy. She doesn’t care that Roy hurts me. She doesn’t care that the other kids pick on me.” Jasmine’s voice was scratchy, and small.

They fey landed on them and began to coo and comfort Jasmine. Harry realised that this was a pivotal point, that this was when the fey greeted their Chosen for the first time, and there was nothing that Harry could do to stop this process only help it along. Harry didn’t feel guilty about helping take Jasmine away because she knew that if she had had the choice to leave her unhappy childhood she would have taken it without a second thought.

So Harry put on a smile and gently pushed Jasmine away so that they could face each other. Jasmine’s face was blotchy, her eyes red, and cheeks tear strain. She was the very picture of an unhappy child, and she probably had been for some time.

“Let’s get you home, and then we can talk, okay?” Harry said.

Jasmine only nodded, Harry took her hand and Jasmine let them back to her house. The house was okay looking house in a nice neighborhood that back onto a small wooded area.

Right before they got to Jasmine’s house Harry stopped her, and then knelt down on the sidewalk so that they were at eye level.

“I’m going to make you a deal.” Harry said, “We are going to meet in the woods behind your house every day. You, the fairies, and I are going to play until you feel you are ready to leave. Agree?”

Harry raised her right hand and stuck out her pinky. Jasmine’s face lit up with a smile, and Harry knew without a doubt that what she was doing was right.

Jasmine raised her hand and untwined her pinky with Harry’s.

“Pinky promise” Jasmine said.

Harry then shook their pinkies, then pulled Jasmine into a hug. Harry then stood.

“Off you go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Harry said with a smile.

“Bye, Harry.” Jasmine yelled as she ran up the drive.

So then everyday Harry would spent time with the fey, and then visit Jasmine. She learned that Jasmine’s mother was more focus on her new husband Roy, and that Jasmine was push aside. She also learned of Jasmine didn’t have soul marks, this led the people around her to think that she was damaged, but Harry knew the truth, Jasmine had been fated to become a fey since her birth.

Their meeting continued for weeks, and Harry hopped that Jasmine’s send-off would be smooth, but that just wasn’t in the cards.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Cardiff 2007 – Roundstone Wood**

It was late at night as Harry sat in the circle of rock in the clearing in Roundstone Woods, resting after a full afternoon of playing with Jasmine. The fey dance around her, playing with the small, glowing balls of light that she had made, it was a simple spell created to entertain young children.

Harry had long shed her jumpsuit and trench coat, as much as she loved them they drew too much attention to her even with her glamour. In fact most of the clothes that Harry owned would look outlandish in the human world, or even the 21st century. So Harry was wearing a long sleeved, mint green maxi dress that she had found in a small shop. The top of the dress was a lace, and a thin silver belt met the transition to where the fabric became solid and flowing. Her raven black hair fell to her shoulder blades in soft waves, she had grown it out with potions because it had been sheered to her scalp only a week before her escape. She also wore no shoes, so that she could feel the magic from the forest easier.

Harry was still armed. The Resurrection Stone was on her right thumb, the Elder Wand was in its dragon hide holster on her left forearm, her new wand crystal wand on her right, and her Invisibility Cloak was tried around her shoulders. In her years as the Master of Death she found that the Deathly Hollows responded to her wishes, so Cloak was still in its visible form.

Now that Harry was healthy, healed up, and away from the stress of her imprisonment her inner glow had intensified to the point that it was obvious that she wasn’t human. So with the Cloaks’ silvery material flowing around her like mercury, she looked ethereal.

Harry was pulled from her quite resting when she heard whispering of a woman. Harry slowly, and with the airs that she was unaware tilted her head so that from the corner of her eye could see and older woman speaking into a tape recorder. Harry noted that the fey were undisturbed and tolerated the woman’s incursion, so Harry continued to play with the fey.

When Harry heard the clicking of a camera she tensed, but still the fey carried on so Harry just made sure that her hair fell forwards obscuring her face in the rest of the pictures. Even though Harry wanted to stop the woman, and destroy all evidence of this meeting, Harry knew better then to start something near a fairy circle.

It was only a minute before the woman left, but Harry could feel that change was in the wind. So with a sigh, Harry returned to her tent, and hoped that she was wrong.

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Captain Jack Harkness awoke pre-dawn with a start as memories from his past came to haunt him in his dreams.

Jack sat up and ran his hand over his face, trying to wipe away the memories, but he knew that he would have no more sleep this night. So Jack dressed and climbed out of his bunker, and into his office.

His mind was still running in circles, as he came to his desk only to find a single rose petal on the top of his paperwork. Then he knew that his dream was no accident, the fairies were back and they were warning him way.

Jack was distracted when he heard movement behind him from the Hub. He turned to find Ianto, file in hand.

“You shouldn’t be here.” Jack said, startling Ianto.

“Neither should you.” Ianto answered in shy sort of way.

Jack knew that Ianto would once again have to find himself in the team after the Cyberman incident. Jack knew that Ianto could no longer be pushed off to the side as a servant as he had been in the past. Jack felt guilty that he had been able to ignore the young man that had conned his way onto his team.

The Cyberman in the basement had been the tipping point to many things in Torchwood Three. Ianto had to finally come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend Lisa had died in a conversion unit all those months ago, and that he had been played. Jack had to come to terms with the fact that he had failed his team, he had not paid enough attention, and that nearly led to his team’s deaths, and possibly the destruction of the world.

Jack watched as Ianto walked to a console, then followed him down.

“What do you got?” Jack asked, as he came beside Ianto.

“Funny sort of weather patterns.” Ianto sighed as he turn to Jack.

Dread pooled in Jack’s stomach because now all the signs were there.

They Fairies were back.

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Later that day Jack took Gwen to a presentation that he had been invited too by Estelle Cole. Estelle was a love from a lifetime ago. Gwen had been sceptical throughout the entire presentation, but Jack knew that Fairies were no laughing matter. They were dangerous, devious creatures.

Jack watched Estelle as she explained her fairy sighting with excitement. She was under the impression that fairies were innocent and kind, and Jack couldn’t convince her otherwise.

It wasn’t until Estelle began to present the pictures that she had took herself that Jack became alarmed.

“I was given a most wonderful sight,” Estelle explained, “I believe that I witnessed a fairy Queen in my last visit.” And with that she changed the slide.

Gwen was too caught up in her own disbelief that she didn’t notice Jack’s alarmed reaction to the picture of the ‘fairy queen’.

Jack knew from experience how fairies looked, but what Estelle had caught on film was no fairy. Jack had no idea what the ethereal creature in the picture could be, but if it was at ease with the fairies, then it had the potential to be dangerous. Even though the woman in the picture looked human, he knew that she was too perfect to be human, and there was also that fact that she literally glowing.

After all, the most dangerous things come in pretty packaging.

When the presentation was over, and the rest of the guests left Jack and Gwen when up to Estelle.

“Jack.” Estelle greeted, and pulled him down so that she could kiss his check. “It is so good to see you.”

“Estelle.” Jack greeted with a smile. “This is my colleague Gwen Cooper, Gwen this is Estelle Cole.”

“Nice to meet you.” Gwen greeted, but her tone suggested that she was only being polite to go along with Jack.

Jack gave Gwen a quelling look, but the less then sincere greeting was ignored by Estelle.

“I’m so happy that you came Jack. I knew that once you knew of the new pictures that you couldn’t resist.” Estelle said.

Jack walked up to the projector and turned it on, and flipped forwards through the pictures that Estelle had took.

“Estelle, when did you take these?” Jack asked.

“A couple of nights ago.”

“Where?”

“In Roundstone Wood.” Estelle handed Jack a new picture, “Oh, look here.”

It was a picture of the ‘queen’ that Estelle had found. Jack signed in exasperation.

“What’s wrong?” Gwen asked.

“Oh, Jack and I have always disagreed on fairies. I only see the good ones and Jack only see the bad.” Estelle explained.

“There are no good ones.” Jack said.

“You see.” Estelle addressed Gwen.

“Oh Jack, if only you could have seen them. They were happy dancing in the woods with their queen, their fairy lights were shinning.”

As exasperated as Jack was, he could help but feel love for the woman that had stolen his heart all those years ago. Even now 50 years later she still had that innocence and faith in all things good that had drawn him to her.

“Do you have any more pictures?” Jack asked.

“Yes, at home.” Estelle said with exasperation.

“Right, I need to see them all.” Jack said with a smile.

As Jack helped Estelle pack up, he missed the eye roll that Gwen gave at his flirting.

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Once at Estelle’s Jack was given the photos, and Gwen was introduced to Estelle’s cat Moses.

“They’re most just of the area” Estelle said.

Jack smiled, “Thanks”

Jack dug into them, looking for any clue of what the ‘queen fairy’ might be. Even with his 51st century knowledge he didn’t know of anything that would match the picture. Jack was distracted when Gwen brought him a picture of himself, and he had to lie that it had been his father. Once Gwen was placated he went back to cross checking a map with the pictures, trying to find the area that the stone circle would be. There were times that Jack wished that Gwen wasn’t so tenacious.

Jack didn’t notice both Estelle and Gwen leave until several minutes later when he went to tell Estelle something. Jack found them in the back yard. Jack was annoyed that Gwen was trying to ferret out information from Estelle regarding his ‘father’.

Jack bounced down the path and over to Estelle.

“Estelle I want you to call me if you see the fairies again. Rain or shine, night or day. Okay?”

“Oh, Jack you’re being silly.” Estelle waved him off.

“I’m worried about your safety. Please Estelle, for me.” Jack all but pleaded.

“Oh, fine.” Estelle sighed, “For you.

Jack pulled her into a one arm hug, and kissed the top of her head. Jack was overwhelmed with memories of a time that they were both younger, and let himself reminisce. It was over all too soon, and Jack need to leave.

He and Gwen left Estelle’s for the Hub. Jack need Toshiko to enhance the pictures that Estelle had given him.

On the way back to the Hub Jack explained to Gwen what he knew of the fairies. That they were ancient and unknown beings older than time. That they were beings that didn’t live in their linear time stream. They were like something that you saw flash in the corner of your eye.

Once back at the Hub Jack had Tosh enhance the pictures and put together a presentation for the team. In an hour they all found themselves in the conference room drinking coffee that Ianto had prepared.

Tosh brought up the first picture on the main screen, not one that Estelle had taken but of a picture that had been used as proof of fairies for years.

“This is the youngest girl,” Tosh clicked forwards to the next picture, “And this is her cousin.”

“I blame it on magic mushroom.” Ianto said.

“What you do in private is none of our business.” Jack teased.

“These photographs were fake.” Gwen said, annoyed.

“Conan Doyle believed in them.” Said Owen

“He was gaga at the time.” Gwen shot back.

“And Houdini?”

“Self-publicist.”

“How do you know so much about it?” asked Jack.

“Because I wrote an essay on the Cotteningley glass-plate photographs when I was at school. And when the girls were old laddies they admitted that they were fakes.” Gwen explained.

Owen laughed at the face Jack pulled for basically being told off.

“So when was this sighting, then?” Tosh asked.

“In a place called Roundstone Wood.” Jack answered.

“Oh, I know it. Has an odd history.” Owen said.

“What do you mean odd?” Jack asked.

“It’s always stayed wild. In the ancient times it was considered bad luck to walk in there, even to collect timber. Even the Romans stayed clear of it.” Owen explained.

“I’ve had no report of any sightings.” said Tosh.

“You won’t. These things come in under the radar, but they play tricks with the weather, so set up a program for unnatural weather patterns.” Jack order.

“Right on.” Tosh acknowledged, and started to tap away on her tablet.

“Are you saying that our machines can’t pick them up?” Gwen asked.

“Nothing can.” Jack confirmed, before moving on, “So Tosh what can you tell me about the ‘fairy queen’ that Estelle found.

Tosh tapped her tablet, and the picture of the ‘fairy queen’ popped up.

“Wow. So how do you explain her?” Owen shot over at Gwen.

“An actress.” Gwen responded deadpan.

Tosh hesitated, “I’ve actually found something on her.”

Jack perked up. “Oh?”

“I ran her face through the facial recognition software, and I got a hit.” Tosh said before tapping on her tablet.

A profile appeared. There was text running down the right side of the screen, but the majority of the screen was taken up put a very ill kept woman. The right side of her face was bruised, and there was blood dripping from her mouth, and it seemed like her face a being held up to the camera by her long black hair. She was glaring right at the camera with piercing green eyes, but even with all that she was still stunningly beautiful.

However the symbol in the left hand corner of the screen sent anger through him. There in the left corner was hexagon T of Torchwood’s symbol.

The whole room when silent. After about a minute Tosh cleared her throat.

“So this is prisoner TW100875, code name Angel. According to the Archives she came through the Rift in 1902.” Tosh explained.

Jack’s head was spinning. Why wasn’t she kept at the Hub; Jack knew that it was rare for things that were collected by a branch to be let go. Torchwood branches were hoarders, hell Archie from Two had to fight Yvonne and him every year for their records.

“If she came from the Rift why isn’t she here?” Gwen asked, voicing Jakes thoughts.

“It looked like she was transferred to One after she managed to escape the cells and kill two agents before they were able to contain her. It was the fourth time she had managed to escape. The lead agent at the time determined her to be unmanageable with the resources they had.” Tosh explained.

“I’ve heard of her.” Ianto suddenly pipped up.

The room turned to Ianto, and his ears went red as all the attention was turned on him.

“Explain.” Jack ordered, his voice cold. His rage for One coming through fully.

“Junior personnel were quite regularly chosen to be a caretaker for one of the long term prisoners. Every three to six months a new caretaker was chosen, I’m not sure why, sir. Lisa…” Ianto voice cracked, he cleared his voice before continuing. “Ah, Lisa was her caretaker for 5 months, Lisa wasn’t supposed to talk about it, but she broke down one day and told me a bit about her. No too long after Lisa was retconned about the whole thing. From what I understood, she was a test subject for new alien tech.”

The whole team when pale, knowing that there was some pretty dangerous and painful tech out there.

Jack then turned to Tosh. “Please fill us in.”

“So in 1907 she was transferred to One. Ianto was almost right, it seems like she never gave a name so one of the junior agents named her Angel. The rest of the file I only skimmed, as most of it was filled with medical jargon, but it seems that she is able to manipulate energy. This allows her to heal at and extraordinary rate, and she is also able to use it externally as well. There was a note from the lead scientist that this healing factor made her good as a test subject. As far as I know she was still at One when it fell. This is all the information that I was able to find in our Archives, but it only from when she was with Three, the rest was probably lost at One.”

“Tosh, can you send me the medical files, I’ll try to make sense of them.” Owen asked.

Tosh immediately sent them from her tablet. “There done.”

Jack cleared his throat. “Tosh I’ll contact Archie in the morning and see if I can get you access to Two’s severs, but I think that is all for tonight. I want everyone to be careful, and Tosh call me at the first sign of unusual weather.”

The team packed up and headed home, but Jack stayed in the conference room. The things that Torchwood had done in the past turned is stomach. It seemed like no matter where Jack went the past always seemed to catch up.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Cardiff 2007 – Roundstone Wood**

The next day Jack took Gwen and Owen to Roundstone Wood, he was pretty sure that he had triangulated where the stone circle was. The entire hike the circle Gwen tried to interrogate Jack about his ‘father’, and it was getting to the point where Jack was quickly losing interest in the game that he was playing with her, and on the fast track to being annoyed.

It took them half an hour to find the circle. When they arrived Owen got down to business and began to collect samples.

“Y’know this whole area was forest in primeval time.” Owen said, “Most of the development areas have been built on ley lines.”

“Anyone could have made this circle.” Gwen exclaimed.

Gwen was starting to irritate Jack with her inability to believe him, she had been with them for months but she still wouldn’t admit that Jack might actually know what he was taking about.

“Why do you keep on doubting me?” Jack asked, annoyed. “I spell out the dangers, and you keep looking for explanations.”

“That’s what police work is all about.” Gwen said as if that explained everything.

“This isn’t police work.” Jack said, a hint of anger in this annoyance.

“All right, science.” Said Gwen.

“It’s not science.” Jack was frustrated at Gwen’s inability to get with the program.

“I know, you told me it’s that corner of the eye stuff.” Gwen said with an eye roll.

It was then that they heard what could have been children’s laughter. Owen and Jack became on edge, but Gwen just scoffed at them. Gwen thought that they were all jumping at shadows. Aliens she could rationalise, but supernatural creatures, in her mind, were just fairy tale.

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That night Torchwood got a call from the local constabulary about a strange death in one of their cell. Mark Goodson managed to time in this cell with no apparent reason. Jack, Tosh, and Gwen were quickly able to determine that Goodson had choked to death by rose petals.

Jack immediately knew that fairies had done this after all he had seen his men die in the same way all those years ago. The only reason for Goodson’s death that Jack could see was that he had tried to hurt the fairies Chosen.

The three of them were able to contain the scene and an hour later they were on their way back to the Hub.

Once at the Hub they were able to run a detailed background check, and play the CCTV of Goodman’s death. Owen was in at his desk going of the files that Tosh had been able to find him on Angel, and Ianto was in the Archives. The rest of the team was going over the data they found in the conversance room.

“You know the dead man was a convicted paedophile. He used to hang around schools.” Jack said. There was no love lost on this man on Jack’s part.

“But why the petals in his mouth.” Gwen asked.

“Just a bit of fun on their part.” Jack answered.

“You call that fun?”

“That’s the way these creatures like to do things. They play games, they torment, and then they kill. “

“Why?”

“As a punishment or a warning to others. They protect their own, the chosen ones. Somehow children and the spirit world go together.” Jack pondered because even he could only guess at the answer.

“So how do we stop them?” Tosh asked.

“First we need to find out who they want. And we can’t trap them, they have control of the elements. Fire, water, air. They had drag the air right out of our bodies. Sometimes I think that they are part Mara.”

“Mara?”

“A kind of malignant wraiths, they prey on people in their sleep. This is where the word nightmare came from.”

The sombre atmosphere was broken when the conversance phone started to ring. Jack stood, and answered the phone.

“Yeah.” Jack greeted.

“Jack.” Estelle’s voice sounded over the phone. Jack felt dread pool in his stomach. “It’s me Estelle.”

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“You were right Jack, there are bad ones. They’ve come for me.” Estelle sounded terrified.

“Estelle, we’re on our way. Stay were you are, and don’t go anywhere near them, do you understand.” Jack said strongly.

“Yes.” Estelle agreed.

Jack hung up the phone, grabbed his greatcoat, and rushed out of the Hub. The girls, and Owen barely had time to hop in before Jack drove like a bat out of hell to get to Estelle.

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Has Harry sat in her tent could feel something change. The Fey were agitated.

It was different then what she had felt earlier that evening, then the fey had been angry. Harry assumed it had something to do with the man that Jasmine had told her about. Even though Harry knew that she probably shouldn’t interfere with whatever the fey were doing, she was just too curious to butt out. So Harry spelled on a forest green dress, grabbed her bottomless purse, and threw her Cloak around her shoulders.

So Harry apparated to where she could feel a built up of energy. She found herself in a rainstorm, and could tell that it was fey made.

Harry cast a repelling charm, then spelled herself dry. She walked through the storm to find the focus of the Fairies’ rage, and she found it in an old woman who was looking severely battered.

Harry recognized had the woman who had taken pictures of her only a few days earlier. Harry couldn’t fathom how she had become a threat in the last week, so she moved to intervene. Harry scooped the old woman into her arms, she had already fallen unconscious.

The rain immediately stopped, and a fey in its true from appeared in front of her.

“ _Why have you interfered, child of Death?”_ The fey hissed.

“There is no need for this.” Harry answered, “She is no threat to you, or Jasmine.”

The fey hissed in anger. _“Her death is to be a warning to the Undying One. He cannot be permitted to interfere any longer.”_

“Then I’ll give him the message.” Harry offered. Harry felt that there was no need to kill her, even if that was how the fey when about in their warnings.

_“The Undying One approaches. Give him the message, and we will spare her.”_ The fey said.

“So it be mote.” Harry felt her magic swell as the pact was made, now either side could go against their word.

The fairies presence disappeared, and Harry was left waiting of the Undying One, as the fey called him.

Harry turned her attention to the woman in her arms. She was wet, shivering uncontrollably, and was coughing. Harry spelled her dry, cast a warming spell on her, and then ran a diagnostic spell. There was water in her lungs, and the woman was not in good shape due to her age. Harry spelled the water from her lungs, then pulled out a piece of Faden Quartz began to push her magic through the woman’s body. As a muggle, potions wouldn’t work on her, but gentle waves of raw magical energy filtered through the quartz would slowly heal her body.

As Harry pooled magic into her hands so that she could more easily push it into the old woman’s body, the glow that Harry normally emitted intensified. Harry grew nervous as she heard an SUV pull up into the drive of the house.

She then heard a man call out, and then pounding on the front door. She them heard multiple footsteps running around the side of the house to where they were.

Harry looked up as the footsteps slid to a halt about two meters away from her. The footsteps belonged to a team of four. There was an incredibly handsome man dressed in period for a WW2 pilot, an Asian woman in a black suit, a white man dressed casual in a jean jacket, and a white doe-eyed woman. She saw them reach of guns and point them at her as soon they came to a halt.

As much as Harry wanted to get into a more defensive position she knew that if she just suddenly cut off the magic to the old woman the shock to her system wold kill her. So Harry just calmly looked on at them, not betraying the fact that she felt agitated.

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When Jack and the others ran into the back yard they were surprised to see Angel sitting on the ground with Estelle in her lap. Angel seemed to glow with some sort of inner light, but there was a pooling of light around her hands that pulsed lightly though Estelle. The air caught in Jack’s lungs as he saw his beautiful Estelle laying on the ground, unmoving. Jack drew is gun and pointed it at Angel, and rest of the team took their que from him.

“Torchwood! Whoever you are raise your hands, and step away from Estelle.” Jack ordered.

The creature just blinked, but made no effort to move.

“This is a warning.” The creature said, Jack could curse because even her voice was perfect.

“A warning?” Gwen asked, confused.

The creatures head slowly drifted to focus on Gwen before dismissing her and turning back towards Jack.

“If I hadn’t intervened Estelle would have died. I see no point for senseless death, but now you have been warned.” Her voice was airy, and haunting. “Do not interfere with the fey, because I will not be able to stop them again.” She warned.

The light around her hands tapered off, and she gentle set Estelle on the ground. “Estelle will be fine, I have healed her, and the fey will not try to harm her again.” The creature said.

“How do we know that?” asked Jack sceptically.

“You have my word.” The creature seemed insulted that they would question her.

She then stood, Jack made sure to track her movements.

“The warning had been passed, and my promises kept.” She said, and with that there was a flash of light blinding them, and she disappeared.

As soon as the light subsided Owen rushed over to Estelle checking her over, Tosh pulled out a handheld sensor and began to take readings of the area, Jack when over to Estelle’s side taking her frail hand into his, and Gwen felt useless has she stood back having nothing to do.

“Owen how is she?” Jack asked.

“I’m not finding anything, she seems fine. Lungs, and air ways are clear; no signs of hypothermia nor exposure. I think that she’s just asleep. Probably should move her inside though.” Owen answered.

With that Jack lifted her into his arms and carried her into the house, Jack set her down in her bed then pulled up a chair beside her. Owen followed him in and rechecked her vitals once she was on the bed. Finding nothing new he pulled back.

“Owen go tell Tosh that I want a full work up of the area. Look for any residual energy signatures, I want to be able to track it.” Jack order.

“Right.” And with that Owen left.

It only took around ten minutes before Estelle started to stir. Estelle was disoriented and confused and it wasn’t until she saw Jack that she sat up and let out a sob.

“Oh, Jack it was horrible.” Estelle sobbed, “You were right, they are bad. I could hear them laugh as the storm swallowed me.”

Jack’s jaw clenched in anger, and his balled his fists. He had been so close to losing her, he knew that one day he would but he would have never imagined her leaving him in such a violent way. Jack took a deep breath then pulled Estelle into a hug. He whispered reassurances in her ear to calm her down. It had taken about 45 minutes, and by that time they had moved into the living room, and Estelle wrapped in a blanket and was nursing a cup of tea. Jack had sent the team back to the Hub, and told them to go home. Gwen had tried to protest but Owen and Tosh dragged her out knowing that Jack was in no mood to deal with the stubborn former-PC.

Once Estelle and Jack were alone, they sat in silence. Estelle trying to readjust her world views, and Jack waiting for Estelle to explain what had happened. It was nearing midnight when Estelle finally opened up.

“I thought that they were going to kill me Jack.” Estelle started.

Jack kept his silence not wanting to dissuade her.

“Moses wouldn’t come in, so I went to get him. Then the doors shut and I couldn’t get them open. I could hear them laughing as the storm grew, and the rain and the wind were just beating at me. I fell and everything became black, but then there was a light. It filled me and I knew I was safe.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Estelle eyes were starting to drop. Jack stood and took her tea cup, and set it down. He helped her lie down on the couch.

“It’s okay Estelle, just sleep. It’ll be fine in the morning.” Jack said gently, as Estelle lost her fight with sleep.

Jack then turned on the T.V, he knew that the retcon had worked. With the T.V on her mind would fill in the blanks and Estelle would think that she had fallen asleep watching it.

Jack felt no guilt in removing Estelle memories of the attack. While they did disagree he didn’t want Estelle burden with knowledge that the creatures that she had championed for most of her life had tried to kill her.

Once he was sure that she was completely out, Jack left and took a cab back to the Plass. Jack took the invisible lift into the Hub. Jack found Tosh working at her station.

“Tosh I thought I told you to go home.” Yelled over as he came down the lift.

“Yeah, but I wanted to enter in the energy readings I got, so that the computer could run them overnight.”

“So what do you have so far?”

“There are residual traces of an unknown energy. I’ve never come across anything like it before.” Tosh answered.

“Can you trace it?” Jack asked as he walked over to her station so that he could look at the energy data that she had collected.

“Not yet, but I’m working on it.”

 “Tosh, go home.” Jack ordered.

“Sure, just after I finish entering all the data I’ll head home.” Tosh said as she was typing away on her computer.

Jack gave her a reassuring smile before heading to his office. He hoped to get a few hours of shut eye before the morning.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Cardiff 2007 – Torchwood Hub**

Jack received a call from Gwen in the morning, apparently the fairies decided to trash her flat late last night. There were roses everywhere, and it had taken Gwen the better part of the night to clean it up.

Jack brought Gwen back to the Hub, and the rest of the team was there waiting for them.

“I want a check on all unexplained deaths in the area.” Jack order Gwen as they came in.

“What the weather forecast for today?” Tosh asked.

“Long sunny spells.” Ianto answered.

“It’s happening again.” Tosh said referring to the localized storm that had formed in Estelle’s back yard.

Tosh brought up a map over laying the unusually weather, the storm had form right over a primary school.

“I can’t understand it. It’s going crazy.”

“Just leave it. Let’s go.” Jack said.

The team minus Ianto was out the door and on their way there in less than a minute. When they arrived they found the kids being led out by parents, and the playground had been trashing in what looked like high winds. Gwen went off on her own when they arrived. The rest of the team quickly began to interview the teacher that had been on playground duty. She was extremely shaken.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It was so sudden, and then it ended.” The teacher explained.

“Was anyone hurt?” Owen asked.

“No, two children were almost scared to death, but they’re okay.” She answered.

Suddenly Gwen came running back in.

“I saw them. In the courtyard” She whispered to Jack.

“And there was little Jasmine in amongst it all.” The teacher said as she continued her story. “She hadn’t been touched. The sun was shining down on her. It was…it was like an aura, like something was protection her.”

“Who is Jasmine?” Jack asked.

“Jasmine Pearce She’s a student of mine.” The teacher answered,

“Where is she now?”

“We’re sending all the children home. We have to.”

“Okay thanks.” Jack said, before the teacher walked off.

“The chosen one.” Gwen said.

“Yeah.” Jack confirmed.

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The team rushed to the home of Jasmine Pearce, but as they were driving Tosh program spilt out another anomalous weather pattern. It was right over the house that they were speeding to.

They pulled up just as the fairies in their true form. They had to push through the fleeing party guest, and try and direct them too safely. As they came to the backyard they found three fairies, one of which was attacking a man in his mid-thirties. Tosh had to hold back a woman as she tried to rush in to safe her partner.

They watched in horror as the fairy managed to knock the man over, and stuck its hand down his throat. The man chocked and as the creature removed its hand red rose petals flowed from his mouth.

Gwen managed to tackle Jack away from a fairy that had jumped him saving him from the same fate that befell the man on the ground. The fairies then took off into the woods behind the house.

The little girl who had been watching the whole scene unfold then followed the fairies through a hole in the fence.

Jack got up off the ground and quickly checked on the man, but as soon as he saw the petals he knew that he was already dead. Jack then ran off after the girl, Gwen trailing behind him. The screams of sorrow of a woman in their wake.

They caught up to Jasmine on top of a hill by a large tree, she seemed to be waiting for them.

“Did you know that you walk in a forest?” She asked them. “Well you are. It looks like a very old forest, and it’s magical. I want to stay in it.”

“You can see this forest?” Jack asked.

“Yes.”

“But it’s not here. It’s just an illusion. It is.” Jack tried to persuade her as he moved closer.

Jasmine shock her head in decline.

“Your friend are just playing a game with you. The real forest can never come back.” Jack said talking to both the fairies and Jasmine, all the while moving closer.

“Oh, it can. When they take me to it.” Jasmine said.

“They told you this?” Gwen asked.

Jasmine nodded.

“But what about your mother? Don’t you want to stay with her? What about your soulmate?” Gwen asked.

There was a sudden violent fluttering of fairy wings as the fairies still in their real forms descended from the trees.

“The child isn’t sure!” Jack yelled at them, as he grabbed Jasmine.

“No!” Jasmine yelled, and tried to break free.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure that she is.” A voice sudden said from behind the tree.

The creature known as Angel walked from behind the tree. She walked with the grace and fluidity that spoke of training and Jack knew from that that she was dangerous. She was in plaid sleeping pants, and a rather baggy red sweater with a large H in gold on the front. Her hair was in a lose ponytail, and she looked a bit disheveled as if she had just jumped out of bed. The only thing that kept them from thinking that she just wasn’t someone off the streets was the fact that she had no shoes on, and her inhuman beauty. It was a large departure from the elegant dress, and cloak that she had been wearing in Estelle’s pictures, and backyard.

“Miss Harry!” Jasmine yelled, and with renewed struggles tried to break free.

Harry slowly walked over to Jasmine and Jack who still led her, and knelt in front of them. Jasmine stopped her struggles once Harry was in front of her.

“Is it time, Miss Harry?” Jasmine asked.

“I don’t know, what do you think? Do you want to leave?” Harry asked.

“No!” Jack yelled, “Find another chosen one.”

“It is too late.” Harry said, and looked up at Jack.

“No, they can find a new chosen.” Jack said now focused on Harry.

“And then what? You try to stop the cycle, but there will always be more children.” Harry said. “It doesn’t matter anyways. She was chosen from the moment she was conceived.”

“So there was never a chance?” Jack asked.

“Never, it is the reason Jasmine has no soul marks, she had always been destined to join the fey.” Harry explained.

“Suppose we make her stay with us, then what?” Jack asked.

“Then lots more people will die.” Jasmine answered.

“Did they tell you that?” Gwen asked.

“They promised.” Jasmine confirmed.

“The fey will never brake a promise.” Harry said. “They will raze this world to the ground to get what they want.”

“Next time they will kill everyone at my school like they killed Roy and that man.” Jasmine said. “If they want to, they can make great storms, wild seas, turn the world to ice, and kill every living thing.”

Jack felt a great sadness as he was beginning to realise what he need to do. If it was a choice between the world and a child, he knew that he would chose the world.

“The child won’t be harmed?” Jack asked first looking at the fey, then down to Harry.

“Jack you can’t mean that!” Gwen exclaimed, horrified

“No, she will be happy.” Harry reassured him.

“A dead world is that what you want?” Jasmine asked Gwen.

“What good is that to you?” Jacked asked Jasmine as he kneeled down to her level beside Harry, “There will be no more chosen ones.”

“Then the Fey would pillage this world, snatching all the children throughout time. It would mean the end of the human race.” Harry explained.

Jack turned to Harry, “How do you know so much?”

Harry just gave him a small, sad smile before standing up. Jack knew at that point that there was no choice.

“Take her.” He said, then let Jasmine go.

“It’s time to go Miss Harry.” Jasmine said, before grabbing Harry’s hand. Harry just smiled down as her, before they started to turn to leave.

“NO! I won’t let you take her.” Gwen yelled and pulled her gun on Harry.

Before Gwen had even a chance to aim at Harry her arm was pulled down. Jack pushed Gwen’s arm down and kept the gun pointed to the ground as he knew that pointing them at a fairy, or their chosen one was tantamount to suicide. Jack pulled Gwen into his body so that she could go after them

Before Harry and Jasmine could move away, Harry hear Jasmine’s mother Lynn yelling for Jasmine. With a wave of her left hand a glamour came over Harry, as the Elder wand responded to her wishes. She took the form of a stereotypical fairy complete with the flowing dress, glow, wings, and scattering of fairy dust in her wake.

Harry led a skipping Jasmine, with their entourage of fey towards a portal that lead to the realm of the fey. Just before they entered Jasmine turned and thanked Jack. As the fey went through the portal and Harry apparated away.

“How could you just let them go?!” Gwen yelled, before pounding him on the chest, and pulling away from him.

Jasmine’s mother, with the rest of the team trailing, made it up the hill in time to see Jasmine disappear. And Jack was left with trying to comfort a woman who had just lost her husband, and her daughter in less than fifteen minutes.

Jack was not looking forwards to the drive back to the Hub. He knew that in the end there hadn’t been a choice. If what the woman, Harry, said was true, Jasmine’s departure was a fixed point in time, and not even he could have stopped it from happening. Trying to change a fixed point was pointless because it always ended up happening even if it didn’t happen in the same way.

Jack felt all of his years and he trudged back down the hill. He knew the next few days would be hard, as the whole team probably hated him right now.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Cardiff 2007 – Roundstone Wood**

It had been a week since the disastrous end to the fairy case, though Estelle had been save, there was still two dead, and Jasmine Pearce had been take. The Torchwood One escapee ‘Angel’ now who they knew was named Harry, still eluded them.

Though Tosh, Owen, and Ianto had forgiven Jack in the first day or two. They had been at Torchwood long enough that they knew that sometimes there was no choice. They had all been damaged in some way before joining the team. Gwen was a completely different kettle of fish, she had been leading a completely normal before being recruited. Jack would admit that he had been partly thinking with his dick when he had hired her, and her innocence and sense of morality had appealed to the immortal, but he was now starting to think that hiring her was a mistake.

Gwen was a crusader, and she didn’t know when to let things go. At first Jack those qualities attractive, but now after a week of her condemning him for saving the world because she didn’t like the way he went about it, those qualities were stating to severely annoy him.

This is how Jack found himself alone mid-afternoon following the readings from his Vortex Manipulator. Tosh had managed isolate a unique energy pattern that Harry produced, and she managed narrow down her location to Roundstone Wood, but her equipment wasn’t sensitive enough to narrow it down. Jack knew that Tosh was back at the Hub trying to cobble together a scanner, but his Manipulator was more than enough to track it down. Normally Jack would have waited for Tosh, and have taken the team with him, but he just could stand the tension with Gwen there. Jack wished that he had more to go on, but Torchwood One hadn’t sent any information of Harry to Two to be archived, so they only had a file from the time that she was at Three.

So Jack had been following the readings for the last hour. When he finally found the source of the energy readings he was confused to find an ordinary canvas tent. He immediately knew that there was something off when he felt something push against his mental shields, it was a psychic suggestion to go off and do something else. He was able to easily push off the suggestion, and made his way into the tent, and immediately stepped back out.

It was bigger in the inside. Jack’s thoughts went straight to the Doctor. Was it possible that he had stumbled a crossed another Time Lord, but that idea was dismissed as there was no indication in the files that he had found on her that she was a Time Lord, or Lady in this case. But if she wasn’t a Time Lady, then how did she have their technology.

Jack went back into the tent slash possible T.A.R.D.I.S. Unlike the T.A.R.D.I.S. there was no central control consul, and instead there was a grand entrance that you would find in an old manor, complete with a duel staircase, candle chandelier, and estate feel.

Jack chose a random hallway and began to explore rooms. He found a room with thousands of polished stick on display, a room with broomsticks on display, a creepy room filled with brains in large tanks, several bedrooms, a room overflowing with gold coins, sitting rooms, and it wasn’t until he came to a massive library that he found what he was looking for.

He found Harry in a bay window bench, she was engrossed in a book. Jack wasn’t sure how to go about this, but he knew that force probably not a good idea, so he decided to just jump right in.

“Howdy.” He greeted cheerfully, and a wave.

Harry jumped up, flicked out her crystal wand, pointing it a Jack. Her heart had nearly jumped out of her chest when Jack had greeted her. She hadn’t felt the wards accept anyone to the tent, and she hadn’t honestly thought anyone could have gotten around the anti-muggle charm.

When Harry raised her wand, Jack’s hand went to his gun, not drawing it but he did unlatch the holster. They were at a bit of an impasse until Jack decided to just push through.

“Captain Jack Harkness.” He introduced himself.

Harry hesitated a moment unsure if she really wanted to give her real name, but decided to give the name she had adopted in the later years of her life.

“Lady Harriett Peverell.”

She stowed her wand, and Jack removed his hand from his gun. Although Harry had met this man twice before she still didn’t know where he stood. She knew that he was Torchwood, but he was very different from the other agents that she had encountered. Harry, not really knowing what do to fell back on her training for the Magi War, and sent out a passive legilimency probe.

She was surprised to find that Jack had shields around this mind, it didn’t feel like occumency, but it still kept her out. She lowered her mental shield slightly, and his face lit up with surprise before he lowered his shields enough that she could feel his intentions, the mind couldn’t lie. Jack was feeling surprised, wary, sincere, and curious. She was sure that he could feel her emotions mirrored to his. These feelings were also confirmed by the pheromones that he was producing, and it was even harder to mask those then thoughts.

There was also that fact that the rumor mill of Torchwood One had painted as Harkness as a rebel who had basically broken from the Torchwood Charter. There was also the rumor that Jack had been a companion of the Doctor, and as the old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

So Harry deciding to trust in Jack and fell back on her Ladyship training that Andromeda had given her after the Second Blood War had ended and both the Potter, Black, Peverell and several other lordships had been dropped on her.

“Why don’t we move to the garden?” Harry asked falling into her pureblood mask.

Jack gave her a charming smile, and gave her a wave of his hand. “Lead the way.”

Harry led him to the extensive garden that back onto a forest that held the majority of the creatures that she had saved. Although Harry didn’t like having a practical stranger at her back, she could feel the house elves following them from the shadows, and they would protect her if Jack tried anything.

The garden was like a giant greenhouse, the roof of the enclosure was spelled to emulate the weather patterns of Hogwarts, and with the use of runes and crystals she had been able to create a contain ecosystem. There were also some smaller greenhouses that housed the more dangerous plants. The area just outside the manor was a beautiful garden that had a stone folly, several fountains, shaped hedges, and a well maintained flower garden.

They walked up a stone path that led to a marble folly, that held a glass table, and matching marble chairs with cushions, and on the table was tea and biscuits that the elves had put out. Jack acting the gentleman held out her chair for her before sitting down a crossed from her.

Harry pored the tea. “Cream? Sugar?”

“Two sugar, please.” Jack answered.

Harry fixed his tea, and handed him the cup and saucer. She then grabbed her own cup, and took a sip, wishing that the elves had left fire-whisky instead.

There was a long awkward silence, before Jack broke it.

“So Fairies.” He began.

“What happened with the fey was unavoidable. Those that are taken have been fated to be taken since before they were born.” Harry explained.

“How do you know so much about them?”

“I learned about them in school. For the most part they are harmless.”

“How can you say that? They killed two people and tried to kill another.” Jack said angrily.

“The fey are children, and children can be extremely cruel. They only kill those that have harmed them or a child that they have claimed as theirs.” Harry paused for a moment, trying to decide how much she should tell him. “I’ve seen them kill before, they saved me from a pedophile when I was 7, but I have also seen them play with my godson, and then his children.”

Jack drew back. “You were a chosen.” He whispered.

Harry gave him a sad smile, “Maybe if the hadn’t been a prophesy attached to me, but still they protect me as much as they could.”

Jack looked around the garden.

“What is this place?” Jack asked, changing the subject.

Harry hadn’t given Torchwood anything in the 105 years that they had had her, but Jack felt different. Her magic seemed to accept him, it was why the wards didn’t warn her and why the house elves hadn’t attacked. So Harry decided to be honest with him, because she felt that she could trust him, and Harry would admit that there was a part of her attracted to him. Maybe she was being a fool, but she just wanted believe that maybe not all of Torchwood was like the better part of One.

“It is many things, my home, a sanctuary, a museum, and in some ways an Ark. These are the last remains of my people.” Harry answered.

“Your people? So you aren’t from Earth?” Jack asked.

“Oh I am, just not this Earth. I came through the Veil that keeps realities separated, like those metal men in London.”

“That’s not possible, the Time Lords sealed the pathways between realities.”

“Then now do you explain the Cybermen?”

Jack was at a loss, this woman had done something that he was sure that even the Doctor couldn’t do.

Harry sighed.

“These Time Lords may have closed most of the paths but there probably are some still around. I know that the one that I went through was only one way.” She explained.

“Why would you go through the trouble?” Jack asked, he could fathom what would drive someone to jump realities especially knowing that they could never return.

Harry just looked off into the forest, and tried to think of a way to explain.

“My people evolved alongside the humans of my reality, and from their primitive view we were Wizards and Witches. Though I now have come to believe that my people were refugees that came to Earth and breed into the local population.” Harry raised her hand to silence Jack as he opened his mouth to protest. “Please, I understand that my story might be hard to except, but please save your questions.”

Jack just nodded, taking a gulp of cooling tea.

“The widely accepted history of our two realities are surprisingly similar. If you didn’t know any better you could assume that they were the same. So, since the Witch trials my people completely isolated themselves from the normal humans, which we call muggles, and for centuries it worked. I was born in 1981 at the end of our first civil war known as the First Blood War. The second Blood War broke out when I was 14, and it ended when I was 17. The whole premise of the two wars was that our people were better than muggles, and those of my people who were born to muggle parents. Because the aggressors thought that muggles were lower than animals they would often attack and kill them for sport.

“We were able to keep our worlds separate, but in my early twenties my people were discovered due to the ever increasing advances in technology, and the ignorance of my people. In the year 2020 the First Magi War began. The Muggles conducted a coordinated attack all a crossed the world, targeting our government buildings, major shopping centers, and schools. It led to a guerrilla war on our part, and it took nearly 30 years before the majority of my people have been either killed or captured and place in camps.

“It wasn’t until 2176, 56 years after first contact with the Arcturans that an interstellar war broke out, known as the Second Magi War, and my people were conscripted to fight it. My people had no chance as they had no real rights, after the first Magi war my people had been forgotten about for the most part. So my people were breed, and experimented on to become the prefect soldiers for the Second Magi War.

“I’ll admit that I did work for them so a private contractor during the Second Magi War. Even if my people were being used as weapons, Earth was still my home and I didn’t want it destroyed. The private military company that I worked for forged me into a weapon basically at my own request, and once the war was over I left them. I, however was a victim of my own success, as during the war I was categorised as a hyper-lethal vector.

“It was 2295 when the war finally cooled down, I exposed what the government had done to my people and this led to a reform in the way that my people were treated. That led my people to slowly being reintroduced to modern sociality, but they would always be property of the military, but at least they now had some rights.

“I left my reality because I was being hunted. I was the last pure-blooded Magi, and my powers were much more potent than the descendants of my people. They knew from the Second Magi War that I was leagues above the soldiers that they had been able to produce from the descendants of my people. They knew that from me they could have breed an army more powerful than any other in history. So I found a way to escape, and save what little of my culture I could, I didn’t even know if it would work, but I felt that I was better dead then a lab experiment. Though I didn’t expect to travel almost 500 years into the past,”

Harry then gave a cold laugh, “It’s ironic though because I became what I feared most at the hands of Torchwood.” She gave Jack a cold glare.

“That was Torchwood One, I’m in charge of Three. We haven’t been associated with One since 2000.” Jack replied automatically, his head spinning.

He could understand why she left, there had been times in his life that he had become an experiment for twisted scientists who wanted to understand his immortality, or they were just sadist. He wouldn’t wish being a lab rat on anyone.

They sat in silence for some time, the only sound of the forest, and Harry refiling their tea. It wasn’t until Jack noticed a small iridescent white pony, with a tiny horn coming out of its head. The pony was slowing making its way up the steps to the folly. Jack watched as it made its way up to the table and began to lick the sugar from the sugar jar. Jack gave a small laugh, spooking the pony causing it to try and hide behind Harry.

Harry laugh, and ran a hand through the year-old unicorn’s mane. She was surprise that the yearling had braved the presence of a man, even if it was for a sugary treat.

“I’m surprised that she braved your presence.” Harry said.

“Oh, I’m wounded.” Jack joked, and raised his hands over his heart.

The pony raised her head indignantly, and snorted before walking off. Harry couldn’t contain herself, and the two of them broke down in laughter.

Jake felt lighter than he had in years. In the presence that Harry radiated Jack felt young again, and it had been a long time. Harry reminded him of home in a way, the light psychic contact connecting them on a completely different level, the phenomes allowing him a deeper understanding. It had taken him years to learn how to read people without those ques, and it had gotten him killed a number of times too.

“Do you want a tour?” Harry asked.

“I would love one.” Jack replied.

Jack stood, and gave his hand to Harry to help her up. They had only begun the walk back to the manor, when his earpiece beeped.

“Sorry I need to take this.” Jack said.

Harry just nodded.

“Harkness.” Jack answered.

“Jack where are you?” Tosh’s voice sounded over the earpiece, “Your GPS isn’t showing up. Anyways there is a Weevil sighting in a school park.”

“You guys will have to deal with it, I’m too far out of town. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Jack said. He then turned to Harry with a smile, “I’ll need to take a rain check.”

“My door will be open, I’ll just ask that you inform me if you will be bringing guests.”

“Oh, are you trying to get my number?” Jake flirted.

Harry laughed, “No you’ll find that most technology of this time will short-circuit around me, but I have the next best thing.”

Harry led Jake into the manor, and to a study where she pulled a two leather bound journal out of the bookcase, and one handed it to him.

“When you write in this journal it will transfer to my copy.” Harry explained.

Harry led Jack to the tent entrance.

Jack kissed the back of her hand, “Until we met again.”

Harry blushed before waving him off.

“Write me.” She said as he walked off.

TDLTDLTDLTDLTDLTDLTDLTDL

Jack and Harry wrote back and forth for the two and a half days it took before Jack was able to get back. They wrote about anything and everything. Jack was especial curious on how Magi technology worked, especial the tent, and it had taken Harry over half the pages in the journal to explain in a way that Jack would understand.

When Jack arrived back at the tent he walked right through to the library where Harry had told him that she would be. There they sat and talked for hours. Harry explaining about her world of supernatural beings, and Jack taking about how he had turned Torchwood around and changed it into a good place, not the one she knew.

“Don’t you get bored here?” Jake asked.

“Yes,” Harry sighed, “It wasn’t so bad when the fey were here, but now that they have left for their realm there is very little for me to do. This place is self-sufficient, and I have had centuries to inventory this place.” Harry hadn’t told him that she was immortal, but had hinted that her people were long lived, and while that was true she hadn’t explained that abnormally long lived.

Jack just hummed in agreement. He hadn’t told her that he was immortal, but if he had centuries to live he could imagine doing nothing but sit around.

“What if you come work for me?” Jack offered.

Harry sat up abruptly, and stared at Jack. “Are you serious?”

“Sure, from what you’ve told me you have combat experience, and you probably have more experience with aliens just about everyone on the planet.” Jack explained. He had been think about this for the last two days.

“You do realise that I’m most not human, right?” Harry said, still in disbelief.

“What’s a bit of alien DNA?” Jack just waved her off, he himself was about 90% human.

Harry’s mind was running a mile a minute. As much as the offer tempted her she could still remember the torture that Torchwood One had put her through. But even know she was getting twitchy she wasn’t used to doing nothing for long periods. Even when she was locked in her cell she was always planning an escape, and when she wasn’t planning she was learning all she could about the organization that imprisoned her, and about the aliens that often shared her cell block.

“If you try and imprison me again, or force me into any experiments I don’t consent to, I will kill anyone in my way to escape.” Harry warned, and she was serious. Harry never wanted to be a prisoner again.

“I understand.” Even though the threat to his team irked him, he from experience that he would do the same thing.

“What are we going to tell your team? You told me that they know that I was a prisoner at One, and I doubt that they are going to believe that I’m a witch from another dimension.”

“We’ll stick to the truth as much as possible, and as far as they will know you were a Rift-ugee from the 25th century with no way home. You already told me that you were a soldier, and the time that you left would coincide with height of power of the First Human Empire. If asked you could just say that you can’t say anything because it would interfere with timelines. If anyone asks about your non-human DNA just say that your Grandmother was human.”  

“So when do I start?” Harry asked, knowing that she could work with that story.

“7 o’clock tomorrow, I’ll be here to pick you up.” Jack said with a smile.

“Dress code?” Harry asked.

“Anything you want, but preferably naked.” Jack flirted.

Harry just laughed, though her cheeks did heat up with a blush.

“I’ll see you in the morning Jack.” Harry said.

This time as Jack left he kissed her on the cheek, and her face went tomato red.

“I love that colour on you.” He said flirtatiously as he walked away.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**Cardiff 2007 – The Hub**

When Jack had picked Harry up at her tent, he had been surprised and aroused at her choice of clothing, and though not naked she was still sexy as hell. She had on a form fitting black jumpsuit, knee high black leather combat boots, and a burgundy leather coat that came to about mid-thigh. It was the outfit he remembered seeing in the first pictures that Three had taken when they had found her. She was armed a pistol that was strapped to her right thigh, but he didn’t recognise the make of them, and had some sort of utility belt.

“Wow.” Jack exclaimed, his eyes practically undressing her in his lust.

Harry just rolled her eyes. Though she had agreed to work for Jack, she wasn’t going into Torchwood without armour, and plenty of weapons.

“I’m assuming you know how to use those.” Jack indicated to the gun.

“Of course, it’s not just for show.” She said with a small smirk, before drawing and flipping it so that the grip was pointed at Jack, seemingly not conserved that she had a gun now pointed at her.

“Here.” She said and motioned for him to take it.

Jack gripped the gun and took it from her, then began an inspection it. It was unlike any pistol he had come a crossed. It had a long, narrow rectangular barrel, and with only a 3 millimetre wide and 3 centimeter long rectangular slit of a barrel, he could assume that it didn’t fire a psychical projectile. There was no obvious action or safety, although it seemed to take a clip, he could find no release.

“Try firing.” Harry with a knowing smile.

Jack felt that he was being set up somehow, but still complied. He took aim at a tree about toe metres away, then pulled the trigger for nothing to happen. He tried several more times before he was interrupted by Harry.

She was obviously amused. “It won’t fire for you.” She stated.

“Biometrically locked?” Jack guessed.

Harry just shook her head in amusement.

“Not in the way that you are thinking, anyone of my people could have picked it up and used it. It’s what I would call a general focus or Casting Assisting Device, it’s actually so generalised that they are practically useless, unless specialties. My people use personal foci that can be used to do anything, but general foci can only be programed to do two or three things.” She explained.

Jack frowned in confusion, “So I can’t use it.”

“Well you could if I had primed it for you. Where the clip would be in a normal gun there is are special crystals that focus and control the magic. There is also a charge cell that I can fill my magic. For safety reasons I don’t normally do that, because unlike a normal gun there is no safely, and if someone like you were to use it you would have no way to control the intensity of the magic so it would likely always be lethal.” Harry thought for a second, “Well expect if they were particularly weak willed, and had no real want to fire the gun, then it magic expected would probably be harmless.”

“Can I try?” Jack asked, curious in how the gun would handle.

“Sure.” Harry answered before placing a hang on the butt of the pistol that Jack was holding. “Now try.”

Jack made sure to aim carefully, before firing. A green beam of light, the exact shade of Harry’s eyes, shot out. It hit the tree and dissipated. The way it handled it reminded him of his sonic blaster.

Jack looked over as Harry came up beside him, her psychic feel, for lack of a better word, was serious. She wasn’t in the relaxed state that he had come to associate with her. She held her hand out for the gun, and Jack handed it over, and then she holstered it before walking over to the tree that Jack had shot. Jack followed, unsure of what she was doing.

Harry came up to the tree and began to peel away the bark. “This is what I meant by you would have no control over the magic. That green beam kills anything that it touches, there is no surviving it.”

The wood under the bark was obviously dead, and looking up to the top of the tree he could see leaves that were still green and alive.

“Because it is a plant, only that places were the blast hit would have died, but on a living creature it will stop all biological activity instantly.” Harry said. “I can control the energy output though.”

Harry then pulled the gun, and shot a bright red light at another tree then looked up at Jack. 

“That would only stun. Knocking a person out for two to three hours, unless I reversed it.” She said.

Jack’s whole demeanor was showed how serious he was, had his mind was racing. The implication of having someone be able to kill with no apparent signs of murder. Jack understood how the easily it would be to fear her, and how some would even go so far as to control her for that talent.

“I hope that you understand that we will want to run some tests on your abilities.” Jack said.

Harry nodded, “I thought as much.”

Jack then looked at his watch and swore. “Damn, we’ve been here longer than I thought. I wanted to get you to the Hub before everyone arrived. Come on then.”

Jack and Harry headed to the SUV, the drive to the Hub was spent in comfortable silence. Jack was a bit disappointed as he parked in the underground parking lot. He enjoyed introducing new recruits to the Hub through the invisible lift.

Jack led Harry through the doors that led to the Hub, and watched with a smile as Harry was enthralled with the Hub. Harry had never seen anything like this before, even when working for a PMC in the Second Magi war they kept her far away from any sort of tech. Harry looked up after hearing a noise and was amazed to see a pterodactyl.

“Her name is Myfanwy.” Jack told her.

Harry moved away from Jack and went up the stairs to a catwalk as Myfanwy landed in front of her. Jack was slightly worried until Myfanwy allowed Harry to pet her long beak.

Harry spun suddenly as she heard a gun click, startling Myfanwy into flying off. Harry turned to find a woman that she believe Jack had called Gwen pointing a gun at her. Harry spread her arms signaling that she was no threating.

“Gwen! Put down the gun.” Jack ordered as he ran up to Harry and put himself between the two.

“Jack. What are you doing, she dangerous. She works for the fairies.” Gwen said, pistol still raised.

“Gwen put the gun down, now!” Jack ordered sternly.

The gun dipped slightly, before Gwen raised it with renewed determination.

“Who are you and what have you done with Jack?” Gwen demanded.

A look of shock briefly showed on Jack’s face before being replaced by anger and annoyance.

“Gwen, disarm now! That is a direct order!” Jack barked.

Ianto, Tosh, and Owen had been drawn to the showdown between Jack and Gwen. They had been surprised that Harry was there, but just assumed that Jack had been able to talk her into coming in, it wouldn’t have been the first time. After assessing the situation and realising that Gwen wasn’t just going to stand down Owen decided to try and intervene, Tosh went for a stun gun, and Ianto locked down the Hub.

“Oi! What you doing up there.” Owen called from below the catwalk.

“Owen I think something had happened to Jack.” Gwen called back, eyes not leaving Jack and Harry.

Jack looked annoyed that Gwen thought that he had been replaced or mind controlled, because even if he was she wasn’t following protocol. He knew that he was normally pretty relaxed about following protocol to the letter, but he took the safety of the Hub and his team seriously.

“Nah, Jack manages to talk aliens into coming in all the time. Here I’ll prove it.” Owen said, “Deposit, Way, Driving, Wave, Ditto.” Owen giving the randomly generating challenge phrase.

“37, 43, 97, 52, 26” Jack rattled off the counter phrase. They were randomly generated by Mainframe, and changed every two weeks.

“That’s him.” Owen confirmed.

“Great,” Jack said sarcastically, “Now Gwen will you lower your god damn gun!” Jack barked angrily.

Gwen reluctantly lowered and stowed her gun. Jack stomped over to Gwen and then pulled the gun off her belt.

“Hey!” Gwen yelled, indignant.

“You’ll get this back after you prove to me that you have actually read the protocol manual. If you had you would know that there are challenge phrases to confirm who agents are. Until then you are on desk duty.” Jack said angrily, he then addressed the whole team, who were watching the byplay.

“Everyone this is our new recruit Harriett Peverell. Harry is seams you met Gwen Cooper, Field Agent.” He said indicating to Gwen. “Over there is Owen Harper our doctor.” He motioned to the doctor was he was walking back over to his station. “Then there is Toshiko Sato, our genius tech.” He motioned to the Asian woman who was stowing a stun gun back into her desk. “And then we have Ianto Jones, our…”

“Teaboy!” Owen yelled from his desk.

Jack just shot Owen an annoyed look. “As I was saying Ianto is our archivist and support man.” Then motioned to a young man in a sharp suit.

Harry was immediately interested in Ianto Jones because that was one of the names soulmate names. She knew that it was unlikely that this was her Ianto, but she felt a sliver of hope.

“Hello.” Harry greeted the room.

“Oi, newbie you need a physical. Met me in my lab in 5.” Owen called over before heading there himself.

Harry shot Jack an alarmed look, and Jack just laughed.

“I’ll see you after you escape Owen.” Jack said before shooing her off.

Harry’s first day went smoothly for the most part, she realised early on she would probably never like Gwen, but she could work with her. Gwen had cornered Jack in his office and tried to convince him that Harry should be locked up because she was dangerous. Nearly an hour later Gwen stocked out of Jack’s office after he kicked her out, and she spent the rest of the day pouting at her desk and glowering at Harry.

Owen had been sarcastic and personally invasive her whole psychical, but he was a very good doctor. Tosh and Ianto helped her set up her desk that was actually on the next level down near Ianto’s desk in the Archives.  Harry was more than happy to be down in the Archives because there was less of a change of her blowing up all those fancy computers that Tosh had upstairs.

It had been actually a bit funny when Tosh had handed her a cell phone only for it to blow up only an hour later when Harry got frustrated with it. An hour later, and three phones and a laptop reduced to scrapes, Jack finally intervened and let her take out an earpiece from the 42nd century. At the end of the whole ordeal Harry had been band from coming within a meter of Tosh’s desk. However Tosh’s dismay at Harry’s murder of innocent technology was quickly set aside when given a chance to study Harry’s magic. She told them that the energy was called magic for lack of a better name for it.

Nearing the end of the day Jack took Harry and Ianto into his office.

“Ianto I want you to train Harry in the day to day operations of the Hub.”

Ianto was surprised. “Me, sir.”

“Yes, you have been at Torchwood longer than anyone else besides myself, and you know all the protocols. Harry will also be helping you in the maintaining the tourist office, and down in the Archives.” Jack said.

“I thought that she was hired on a Field Agent.” Ianto said, since she certainly looked like a field agent.

It was Harry that answered, “Ianto, I am have been trained as a soldier at one point in my life, but as a young woman I worked in research, and later in development. I have a unique educational back ground and I may be able to help explain some of the stranger terrestrial things that we may find.”

“And that’s not to say that Harry will not be going in the field, she will.” Jack said, “And so will you Ianto, once I test your weapons proficiency.”

Ianto did not looked thrilled at the thought of going out into the field.

“Understood, sir.” Ianto said.

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The next three weeks had been relatively quiet. Harry was learning the ins and outs of Torchwood Three, when Ianto as her mentor. There had been only a couple Weevil sightings, and Harry had gone on an inorganic rift retrieval.

Jack had also had Tosh create an identity for her along with a background history and papers. Harry had been able to convert some of her gold into pounds, and rented a two room flat near the Hub. She had left her tent in Roundstone Woods, but raised the wards fully. After Jack had found her tent she realised even if someone else could find it, now that the wards were fully raised they wouldn’t be able to enter like Jack had.  

She had also bought a motorcycle, she would have bought a car but she liked the freedom that it gave her as it reminded her of being on a broom.

Harry felt that she was adjusting to her place in Torchwood. She had developed friendships with Tosh and Ianto, and had a working relationship with Owen. Gwen was still watching her every move, and had blown up at her once about her role in Jasmine’s departure. She had already counted Jack as a friend and he was very easy to work with.

All in all everything was going good.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Cardiff 2007 – The Hub**

The team had been told my Jack that they were going out of town. The team wasn’t too enthused, but figured that it was some sort of teambuilding exercise that Jack had thought up. Owen had been ranting about the countryside ever since, until Jack finally sent the team home early to pack. Ianto and Harry had stayed behind to get the camping gear ready and packed for the following morning. Jack hadn’t told the rest of the team, and Ianto and Harry were not looking forwards to Owen finding out that they were staying more than a day.

Harry and Ianto were digging out the camping gear from the archives, and checking it over to make sure that it was still usable. Most of the gear looked as if it hadn’t been used since WW2, and it probably hadn’t.

“Do you really think that we will need all this?” Harry asked, indicating to the huge pile of gear, in her experience all you real needed was a tent, and a bed roll.

“I would rather not listen to Owen bitch anymore then I need to.” Ianto answered.

The two of them went about packing the SUV.

“Have you ever gone camping?” Harry asked while the two of them lifted the heavy canvass tent.

“Only one or twice with my parents when I was real young. Don’t really remember much, but I think I enjoyed it. You?”

“I wouldn’t really call it camping, but me and two of my friends lived out of a tent for almost a year.” Harry said with a sad smile.

Ianto raised an eyebrow, “That sounds like there is a lot more to that story.”

Jack had left it up to her to explain to the team where she had come from, and after the explanation that she was a soldier from the 25th century they were careful about what they asked her. Well everyone but Gwen who would stop looking at her with suspicion and kept pushing for her to reveal things.

“We were on the run from our government after it fell to the opposing side during a civil war. It wasn’t what I would call enjoyable because we were under the constant stress of potentially being capture and tortured.” She said it so matter of fact that is cause Ianto to falter.

“Tortured?” Ianto asked a bit horrified.

“Yeah, the side that we were fighting would be the equivalent of Hitler and his Nazis.” Harry explained in terms that Ianto would understand.

“Ah, did you win?” He asked as they loaded the second tent.

“Yes.” Harry said in a small sad voice, as she thought back to the final battle.

Ianto thankfully changed the subject to work, and they finished packing the SUV. Once it was packed Harry and Ianto headed to their respective flats to pack for the trip the next day.

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The whole team with the exception of Harry had crammed into the SUV, Harry was going to follow behind them on her motorbike. Harry could still hear them though through the head set in her helmet, and she was starting to regret not asking Tosh how to mute the thing.

“I hate the countryside. It’s dirty and unhygienic. And what is that smell?” Owen complained.

“That would be grass.” Gwen said, exasperated.

“It’s disgusting.” Owen said.

Owen’s tirade hadn’t stopped from the night before, and they were all starting to get tired of it. It wasn’t until an hour into the drive Jack briefed them, on why they were out here, because it turned out that it wasn’t for teambuilding.

There had been seventeen disappearances in five months, and Jack was concerned that the Rift might be spreading. It was concerning because there was nothing connecting them except they all disappeared in the same 20 mile radius, he last to have disappeared was a woman named, Ellie Johnson.

Once Jack had told them that they would be camping during their investigation Owen had because increasingly caustic.

“What the matter with a hotel?” Owen asked as he helped Jack get out the third tent.

“Do you really want to say in a hotel run by strangers when people are going missing?” Jack asked.

“Oh, ‘cause sleeping outside is gonna be a lot safer!” Owen complained.

“No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness.” Jack said as they dropped the tent.

“Hey! I go camping.” Harry popped up from where she had been hammering in pegs.

“You’re still partly human, you don’t count.” Jack teased her.

The whole team chuckled at that.

They spent most of the afternoon setting up camp. Owen had managed to collapse the tent he was trying to set up twice before Harry and Tosh had taken over. He probably wouldn’t have collapsed if he hadn’t been bitching the whole time and had focus on the task. Once the camp was set, and they gathered around camp table.

“So who was the last person you snogged?” Gwen asked the group.

“You sound like an eight-year old. Who the hell says ‘snog’?” Owen asked.

“Oh, come on it’s just a little bit of fun. Mine was Rhys.” Gwen said.

“Yeah, well that a surprise.” Owen said sarcastically.

“Tosh, what about you?” Gwen asked.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Tosh said, trying to avoid the question.

“Come on then.” Gwen pushed.

“Owen.” Tosh said, ducking her head in embarrassment.

“Really?” Owen asked surprised, he couldn’t remember it.

“It was New Year’s, we were waiting for a cab, and you were drunk. What about you Harry?” Tosh asked to deflect.

“Caelum Scorpius Malfoy.” Harry said.

“Was he your boyfriend?” Gwen asked, zooming in on the personal information.

“No, he was a soldier under my command during the Second Magi war. He was going into psychic shock, I grounded him.” Harry explained. Caelum had been a nice enough boy, but he was the many great grand-son of her school yard rival.

“Grounding, you say.” Jack pipped up wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, he knew exactly where psychic grounding often led.

“Platonic only.” Harry said with a shudder.

“What about you Jack?” Gwen asked.

“Are we including non-human lifeforms?” Jack asked.

“You haven’t.” Gwen denied with a laugh.

“You’re a sick man, Harkness. That disgusting!” Owen said.

The rest of them just laughed at Jack’s antics.

“What about you, Owen?” Jack asked.

Owen and Gwen shared a look, Gwen begging him with her eyes not to say anything.

“Gwen.” He finally said.

Tosh was surprised and jealous, Ianto already figured after catching them flirting in the Hub, and Harry and Jack could smell the arousal they felt around each other.

“When was this?” Tosh asked, trying to keep her voice light.

“It was complicated, let’s drop this okay.” Gwen said, uncomfortable that now she was the one in the hot seat.

There was an awkward silence.

“So what about you Ianto?” Harry asked, trying to break the tension in the air.

“Ah, it was Lisa.” Ianto answered in a sad voice, he was still grieving for her.

If anything the answer made the awkward tension worse in the camp. Harry didn’t know who Lisa was but what ever happened to her had effected the whole team, and Harry didn’t feel comfortable asking what had happened.

Harry took Ianto’s hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze, and in return he gave her a sad half smile.

“Well, we should get some fire wood.” Owen said, breaking the tension.

“I’ll help.” Gwen said.

The two of them walked to the forest. Tosh go up and started to set up the sensors in the main tent. That left Jack, Ianto and Harry sat around the table.

“Who was Lisa, Ianto?” Harry asked.

“Lisa Hallett was my girlfriend. She was partially converted into a Cyberman during the battle of Canary Wharf. I tried to save her, but it didn’t work.” Ianto was choking up by the end.

Harry looked over at Jack, and his face was cold and was projecting guilt and mild anger psychically. Harry realised that there was probably more to the story, but she wouldn’t push of it. Instead she pulled Ianto into a hug, and let go calming empathic waves. She instantly felt Ianto relax as she had intended, even Jack thawed out.

“I remember Lisa, she was a nice girl for the time that I knew her. She loved you very much, and she would often talk about you, no names mind you.” Harry said thinking back nice young woman who had been her caretaker for about 5 months.

The three of them sat in comfortable silence until Owen and Gwen came back to collect their gear after finding a body.

They led the team back into the woods, and to a corpse. It had been stripped of flesh and gutted. Ianto when about sealing off the scene while the rest of them when about analyzing the corpse.

“Well he’s a male between his 40s and 50s. Wasn’t killed here, no blood or signs of a struggle. He was probably dumped here.” Owen said.

“Why do that? It’s not like they tried to bury him or anything.” Gwen asked.

“Maybe you disturbed him.” Tosh reasoned.

“Or it’s a warning. To mark their territory.” Ianto guessed.

“Cause of death.” Jack asked Owen.

“Can’t say he’s been stripped of nearly everything, the only thing left is the carcass.” Owen responded.

“Could the Weevil’s have made it out this far?” Tosh asked

“No, weevils don’t finish off their victims like this.” Jack answered.

Harry pulled on a latex glove before crouching down next to Owen. She put her hand right into the open ribcage.

“Oi, what do you think you’re doing.” Owen said before pulling her hand away.

Harry stood and looked to the team. Gwen was looking a little green as Harry pulled off the glove.

“I was checking the core temperature. It’s too cold.” Harry said.

“Yeah, bodies to that after they die.” Owen quipped.

Harry just rolled her eyes, “I know that, but he’s still too cold for him just to have been left lying around. He’s been refrigerated or left somewhere cool before being dumped.”

Suddenly they heard a car start from their campsite, and ran back only to find the SUV trashing their camp. Harry let out a whine as the SUV stuck her motorbike totaling it before driving off.

“Where are the keys?” Jack asked pointedly at Owen.

Owen just mumbled.

“I’m sorry?” Jack asked unable to make out the answer.

“I left them in the boot okay. Sorry.” Owen admitted.

“Basic security protocols, Owen” Tosh said angrily.

“Alright already I said I was sorry. I ballsed up, I’m sorry but I’m only human.” Owen said.

 “Well it looks like that body wasn’t a warning more like a decoy.” Jack said.

Jack walked over to Harry who was trying to see if her bike was in anyway salvageable.

“How’s it going?” Jack asked.

“Completely totalled. Even with my magic I couldn’t put it back into working order.” Harry said sadly.

Their only other form of transportation was out, so now they just had to find the SUV.

“Tosh can you trace the SUV’s tracking signal?” Jack asked.

“Already done. I’ve already taken the liberty.” Ianto said. “It’s currently 3.4 miles west from here.”

“Gunning at 90, no doubt. You steal a ride like that you drive straight on till morning.” Owen said.

“Actually it’s been stationary for the last 4 minutes. I would go so far to say that it was parked.” Ianto said.

Harry pulled out a map. “There is a small village in that area. It’s almost exactly in the middle of the area that all those people went missing in.”

“Call me suspicious but this has all the hallmarks of a trap.” Tosh said.

“Yeah, I was just think the same thing. Anyone fancy a walk?” Jack asked.

It was about an hour’s walk to the village, but it was a pretty easy walk.

“So Harry have you seen anything like this before?” Tosh asked about 15 minutes in.

“Not exactly like this but similar, but I’m pretty sure that this was not done by the same creature.” Harry said.

“Why is that?” Gwen asked.

“Well there would have been signs of a hunt. There are some packs that hunt humans, and those have been known to leave caresses lying around as a warning, but it would have been a fresh kill not a striped corpse.” Harry explained.

Harry looked over a Gwen who seemed to be turning green, Harry was surprised that she had lasted this long with such a weak stomach. Half the time Owen was elbows deep in a body, and she seemed fine, but maybe it was different because these were humans that they were talking about.

The rest of the walk was a pretty silent one. Harry couldn’t help but feel there was something off about the whole thing. Even if excluded the trap that they were obviously walking into, there was just something off. Harry could only think of a werewolf being the probable suspect, but she knew that kind werewolves that she knew didn’t exist in this reality. And even if it was a werewolf they would have not set up a den here, there were too many open hills between patches of forest. However she just could shake that feeling that they were being hunted.

Harry’s feeling intensified when they make it into the village to find it deserted.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**Brecon Beacons 2007 – Brynblaidd**

It was a ghost town, it was almost as if everyone vanished in the middle of whatever they were doing. The only sound was the wind and water left running. It was eerie and set them all on edge.

Tosh, Ianto and Harry were ordered by Jack to find and secure the SUV, while the rest of team investigated the village. They broke off from the group and headed to a farm area. The signal was about a five minute walk from village and led them to a locked barn and several smaller locked outbuildings.

“This is wrong.” Harry whispered to herself.

“What was that?” Ianto asked.

“I said that this is wrong. If these people were attacked there should be some signs of struggle.” Harry said.

“Maybe they couldn’t.” Tosh suggested.

“Maybe, but still this whole situation just sets me on edge.” Harry said as they explored the area around the barn.

“I agree. I don’t like this. Why steal the SUV then abandon it?” Ianto asked.

Suddenly there was the sound of movement. The three of them drew their guns, spun towards the sound.

Tosh motioned to Harry to go around the barn. Harry shook her head, not wanting to split up in an unknown situation, but Tosh had already headed off on her own. Harry was annoyed because while the team was good they weren’t used to working as a unit like Harry had become used to in the military. The only plus was that Ianto had stuck close.

Harry motioned for Ianto to follow her. They moved towards the barn, when they heard the sound of something hitting the ground. Ianto was becoming more and more agitated. Harry set her hand on Ianto’s upper arm, and soothed Ianto empathically because she need him grounded in reality not fear. Ianto took a couple of deep breaths, then gave Harry a shaky smile in thanks. Once Harry knew that Ianto was no longer spiralling in fear, they continued their search.

As they moved between the buildings, it was eerily quiet the only sound that could be heard was their own footsteps. As they turned a corner they saw Tosh slumped on the ground. Ianto rushed towards her before Harry could stop him. Harry watched in horror was Ianto reached Tosh only for something to step from the barn and hit Ianto over the head with a pipe.

Harry was about to shoot whatever had attacked Ianto, when something hit her a crossed her back knocking her down. As she fell towards the ground she tried to turn to shoot her attacker only to have the gun ripped from her hand from another blow. Harry kicked out and knocked her attacker to the ground, and quickly began to grapple with her attacker. She was able to quickly get the upper hand due to the fact that even though she was smaller than her attacker she still had her augmented strength. Just as had her attacker pinned, she was attacked by a second assailant. She was hit over the head, leaving her stunned. Soon she was swarmed by at least three or four attackers, they were kicking and stomping on her. Harry lashed out with everything she had, even managing to stun one of her attackers, but she was soon overwhelmed.

The last thing she saw before losing conscience was Tosh and Ianto being dragged off.

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Jack, Owen, and Gwen were not having any more luck then Harry and the others. They had barricaded themselves along with a terrified young man named Kieran. Gwen had been shot, but thankfully the shotgun had been loaded with birdshot, and Kieran wasn’t a great shot. They had also had found several more bodies all in the same state as the first.

Jack could feel the tension rising in the room the longer they waited, it didn’t help that Kieran was scared out of his mind, and couldn’t calm down. Then there was Gwen who was trying to narrow down what could have done this, but Jack was more along the idea that they could find that out later, surviving was more important. Jack wished that Harry was there to calm them down, she was good at group grounding. Jack wasn’t psychic enough to do group grounding, he was better at shielding and touch telepathy.

Suddenly they heard the sound of glass breaking. They drew their guns and turned towards the window only to see a shadow quickly pass by. Gwen let out a small shriek as the lights went out.

Then someone tried to open the front door only for it to be stopped by the barricade. Once it was clear that the door wasn’t going to open all movement outside stopped.

Then there was the faint noise of metal scarping that alerted Jack to the cellar doorknob slowly turning. Thankfully they had been able to chain it shut. Once it was clear to the entities outside that they would not get in that way, they suddenly exploded into action trying to break in.

Jack leapt into action using his body to barricade the cellar door.

“Kieran, move back, we have this.” Gwen ordered, drawing Jack’s attention to the fact that the boy was moving towards the failing barricade on the front door.

Then Kieran began to fire at the door.

Jack then shot though the crack in the door to the cellar and was able to make out the sound of his bullets meeting flesh. Then there was a loud bang as the front door was forced open, and shoots rang out. The four of them dropped to the floor, then they heard Kieran call out for help as he was dragged away. Jack and Owen had to hold Gwen back as she tried to run into the hail of bullets to get Kieran. Jack thought that a former police officer would have more sense than to run towards shooter.

“What are you going, Jack!” Gwen yelled in his ear, “We have to go after him!”

“How the hell are you going to help him if you get shot again?” Jack ground out.

It was several seconds later that the shots stopped. Once they got up Gwen once again tried to go after the attackers.

Jack grabbed her arm to stop her, “Where do you think that you are going?” he asked harshly.

“We have to get Kieran back.” She argued, breaking away from him.

“No, I’m sure that I hit one of them in the cellar. We need to find out what they are.” Jack tried to reason.

Gwen just huffed and ignored him, then walked off into the night.

“Go after her, Owen.” Jack ordered angrily. Gwen attitude, and inflated sense of superiority was getting on Jack nerves.

“Right.” Owen said in a shaky voice before reluctantly following Gwen out.

Jack went down to the cellar to find that he had hit one of the attacker.

When Jack removed the hood of their attacker, he wanted to say that he was surprised to find that their attackers were human, but he couldn’t. He knew that some of the most depraved creatures out in the universe were humans.

Jack fell back on his Time Agent training, and tortured the man for his answers. There had been many questionable things that he had done in his past, and his time as a torturer was one that he regretted. However that didn’t mean he wouldn’t use his skills when needed.

It was pitifully easy to get the man to spill, it only took a few threats, and some pain.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Brecon Beacons 2007 – Brynblaidd**

Ianto was the first to awake in the cellar, whatever Harry had done to calm him down had worn off and his panic was back.

He quickly found Tosh and Harry unconscious on the floor not far from him. Tosh didn’t look that injured, and he could only find a small lump on the back of her head. Harry was an entirely different story, she had been beaten badly.

Ianto looked over her wounds, the worst was a gash on her forehead that was still oozing blood. It probably looked worse than it was because from what he could remember head wounds bleed more.

The room that they were in was cold, and filled with junk. Ianto was able to find a metal hook, and then moved back towards the women to guard them. The only light in the room can from a shoot, it felt the rest of the room in dark shadows.

Harry was the first to wake, moaning in pain. Ianto when over to her to help into a sitting position, leaning against the wall.

“Where are we?” She asked in a pained voice.

“Don’t know, but I think that it’s underground.” Ianto answered.

Harry groaned as she straiten her legs, Ianto wanted to help but he didn’t want to injure her further.

“How are you?” Ianto asked, concerned at Harry’s state.

“It probably looks worse than it is.” Harry wheezed out.

Ianto just shot her a look saying that he didn’t believe her but wasn’t going to argue.

“If we have to run, can you?” Ianto asked.

Harry hesitated enough that Ianto knew that she couldn’t.

“Honestly how are you?” Ianto asked, he need to know if they were going to plan an escape.

“My right leg is either strained or fractured, I have at least two broken ribs, and I have a concussion. I won’t be able to run, and I probably won’t be able to use my magic, head wounds tend to make it go wonky.” Harry wheezed out, before coughing a very wet cough.

Ianto realized that Harry was in a bad way, and need a doctor. There was no way that they would be able get Harry out of here, and she wouldn’t be able to help in an escape attempt. Ianto started to panic, because he knew that Harry would have been their best chance at escape.

As soon as he began to panic, Harry rested her hand on his arm and he immediately began to feel his panic fade into calm. He realized that Harry was calming him down, and it wasn’t the first time that she had done it. Ianto was feeling a bit woozy from the drastic shift in emotions.    

“How are you doing this?” He asked in a small, awed voice.

Harry gave him a small pained smile, “It’s a form of psychic grounding. I’ve trained to deal with and compartmentalize the emotions of others. What I’m doing now is only temporary it’ll wear off in a while, or if something new stipulates those negative emotions. There is a more permanent form, but that takes time and is a lot easier when I’m not concussed.” Harry explained.

Now that Ianto was calm, he was able to think more clearly. It was obvious from Harry’s wounds that they were dealing with more than one attacker, and that made sense also due to the fact that they were able to move them before they awoke. They were being kept for something, and he really didn’t want to think about why they were being kept.

“Ianto.” Harry said to get his attention, “If you or Tosh get a chance to run, go. Don’t worry about me, okay.”

Harry’s face was grim, and Ianto knew that even if he didn’t like it, Harry would only slow them down.

Ianto swallowed harshly, “You’re sure.”

“Yeah.” Harry said confidently, “I’ve been in worse, I’ll get out.” 

They fell into silence, the only sound was Harry’s harsh breathing. Ianto wanted to explore more of the room, but it was too dark.

They sat together until Tosh began to stir. Ianto got up to help Tosh, and he could feel the enforced calm that Harry had given him begin to fade now that she was no longer touching him. He tried to keep calm, but it was hard.

“Where are we?” Tosh asked.

“Probably underground, in some sort of cellar.” Ianto told her.

Tosh immediately got up, and pulled a flashlight from her boot, then started to search the room. Ianto helped her, and it wasn’t until they came to a freezer, that Ianto realized why they were still alive.

“What was in there?” Harry asked after Ianto backed away, horrified.

“Well we found out what they are doing with the people they’ve taken. They are keeping them for food.” Tosh said in a horrified voice.

Ianto could feel the walls close in on him. He felt trapped, knowing that so many people had been kept here, and that they had been killed and chopped up. He realised that this wasn’t a cellar but a larder because they were not prisoners but food. Ianto turned towards the door, and began to kick it. He knew that rationally trying to kick down a reinforced door was going to work, but he had to do something.

“That’s not going to help.” Tosh said exasperated.

“Well at least I’m doing something!” Ianto practically yelled back, his fear turning to anger. “I don’t understand how you do this! It’s like you get a high of the danger, I can see it in your eyes!” Ianto accused them.

“Yeah, well maybe I do!” Tosh exploded back.

Ianto just turned his back, and started kick the door, while Tosh was looking around for anything that they could use. Harry just closed her eyes and rested her head on wall.

Ianto hated the way the rest of the team seemed to enjoy the danger in their lives, but what he really hated was the fact that in a way he did too. In these last few hours he had never been more terrified, but at the same time he felt more alive that he had since the battle at Canary Wharf.

Ianto was startled when a metal slot on the door slid open, he scrambled back and grabbed the metal hook that he had found, his back against the wall. Tosh also grabbed a metal bar and moved to the opposite side of the door from Ianto. Harry stirred, and managed to stand up, but was heavily leaning on the wall.

Then the door slowly opened and Ianto could see the barrel of a shotgun. As the person moved into the room, Ianto jumped them. He tried to take the gun from them, but he was quickly thrown off to the ground. He suddenly heard a woman’s voice.

“Get off me, you idiot!” She whispered harshly, “Look at me, I’m not going to hurt you!”

When Ianto looked up he saw a woman about 40 years old, she looked haggard and a bit beat up. She was holding the shotgun by the barrel, and had her hands raised to appear non-threatening.

“You’ve got a gun.” Tosh said, angrily.

“No, I’m a nurse. Are any of you hurt, can I see?” the woman said.

She moved towards Harry, and tried to place her hand on Harry’s head, but she jerked away only to groan in pain. Ianto moved in between them, placing himself in front of Harry and holding the hook threateningly.

“Okay, okay.” The woman said as she moved away.

“Does anyone know that’s you’re here? Have you managed to call for help?” she asked them frantically.

Tosh was about the answer when Harry cut her off.

“The rest of our team knows that’s were here.” She said being purposely vague.

Ianto looked back at Harry who was eyeing the woman wearily, before turning back to the wedding.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. I’ve been sent to collect you and take you to them.” The woman said in a scared, and slightly guilty voice.

“Tell us what going on, we can help.” Tosh tried to reason.

The woman just gave a small hysterical laugh. “No one’s save.” She said ominously. “Every 10 years they come, there’s no stopping it.”

“What, is it?” Harry asked, moving from the wall and limped towards the woman.

“The Harvest.” She whispered.

The three of them just looked at one another, then Tosh signaled Ianto to move. Ianto sprung forwards, but the woman was too fast. She had the barrel of the gun in Ianto’s face before he could rush her.

“No. No you have to come with me.” She said with a slight hysteria.

They shared a look, and Ianto saw that Harry let Tosh decide. Tosh nodded to Ianto as she put down her metal bar, and Ianto reluctantly dropped his hook to the ground. The woman backed out the door keeping the gun trained on them. Ianto moved back to help Harry out of the larder, and up the stairs following Tosh out. The woman followed them up, the gun still raised.

They were herded into main room of the house, where in contrast to the simple ordinary living room, the kitchen that was sectioned off with large sheets of blood was splattered plastic. The stench was horrible, Ianto had never smelt anything like it.

“What is that stench?” Tosh asked.

“It’s cooking flesh, and blood.” Harry answered, sounding sick.

Ianto just looked at Harry horrified, not wanting to know why she knew that, before moving the plastic away. To see a woman’s corpse hanging from a hook, and wrapped in in a large clear plastic sheets. Ianto could see the frozen look of pain on her face through the plastic, and just pasted the female corpse was several more plastic wrapped corpses. He looked passed the corpses to see jars filled with human organs, and limbs that were in the process of being sliced up. Then the main source of smell was a large stew pot on the stove that was steaming.

“Tell us what these creatures are. Do they looked like us?” Tosh asked in a flat voice, trying to take in the scene and have it make sense.

Ianto felt Harry stiffen, and then inch away from the woman behind them. He looked down at Harry, who was still braced against him, for the first time she looked scared.

“They’re cannibals.” She whisper under her breath so only he and Tosh could hear.

They stiffened at the same time that the woman behind them began to laugh cruelly.

“How else are we going to look?” a man’s voice asked from behind them.

They turned to see a man that was wearing a butcher’s apron, and was spatter in blood. They saw the woman with the gun move towards the man, then pull him down in a kiss. Ianto release that they had been deserved and that the woman was with them.

Ianto released Harry and tried to rush them while they were distracted, but that man gut-punched him then quickly hand cuffed Ianto. The woman raised the gun to stop Tosh in her tracks. Harry was quickly hand cuffed then forced down beside Ianto, and Tosh quickly followed. Ianto found it hard to listen to the two of them as they discussed them as if they were cattle.

After they were cuffed the man pulled out a hogtied young man, the kid was gagged and crying. While the two cannibals were distracted with the kid, Harry got his and Tosh’s attention.

“I’m going to distract them, then I want both to run.” Harry whispered.

“We can’t leave you.” Tosh whispered harshly back.

“I can’t run.” Harry whispered back.

Ianto just nodded knowing that Harry couldn’t run. It was then that the male cannibal harshly pulled Harry to her feet. She groaned in pain, but caught herself before her leg gave out.

“This one’s pretty, if a bit damaged.” The male cannibal said as he leered at her, “I wouldn’t kind tenderising this meat.”

Ianto tried to surge forward to protect Harry, but was quickly hit with the butt of the shotgun. His head was spinning as he looked up to see Harry looking at the man, disgusted.

“As if I’d let a pathetic man like you touch me.” Harry sneered at the cannibal.

The man slapped her, and as she pulled herself back up she reared back and head butted the man, then as he cupped his nose and leaned forwards she knocked his legs from under him. The female cannibal rushed forwards to help, and Ianto and Tosh to the opportunity to run.

Ianto made it to the door when a new cannibal managed to stop him, but he was glad that Tosh had made it out. Ianto was hit several times before he was dragged back to the kitchen where he was greeted to the sight of Harry who had blood all over her face, and the male cannibal in a headlock with her thighs. He could hear the man gasping for air, and was clawing at her legs. The female cannibal was holding the shotgun to Harry’s head, but Harry whose face was twisted in pain just stared back.

Ianto was thrown down beside Harry and the female cannibal shifted the gun to Ianto’s head.

“Let him go or I’ll blow his brains out!” The female cannibal yelled at Harry.

Ianto could see Harry grit her teeth, before letting the cannibal go, but not before giving the canibal a kick in the head. As the cannibal got up, gasping for air, Ianto could see that there was blood dripping from his head, and was missing an ear.

It was then that serval more cannibals joined the two from before and they began to beat he and Harry. Even through his beating be heard a loud snap, then Harry cry out in pain. He tried to get to her, but he was overwhelmed by the beating and pain.

Ianto was not sure how much time pasted because he was drifting in and out of conscious, but he was pulled awake when the one ear cannibal pulled him to his knees, and placed a knife to his neck. Ianto could see that Owen, Gwen, and Tosh we captured, and Harry was unconscious on the floor, her right leg at an odd angle.

Ianto could only sob as the knife cut into his neck. He realised that he was probably going to die, then be eaten. He only had two regrets, that he had fallen out with his sister, and that he would never find his soulmates.

Just as the cannibal was about to slit his throat, he heard the rumbling of a large vehicle. Then the front wall exploded, and gun shots rang out. Ianto was dropped as the cannibal was shot, and he looked up to see Jack, standing on the tractor that busted through the wall, shooting the cannibals.

Ianto could only feel relief.

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Jack looked over the scene. He had disabled all of the cannibals, and his team was hurt but alive. Tosh, Gwen, and Owen were relatively unharmed but Ianto was on the ground beaten with his neck bleeding and Harry was beaten unconscious with a broken leg. Jack was angry and wanted to kill the cannibals but that would have been too good for them. He was going to pull some strings and get them held in a U.N.I.T. jail where they could rot.

Jack jumped down from the tractor and disarmed the cannibals and with the help of Gwen he secured the cannibals. Owen was working on Ianto and Harry.

It was when they got to the cannibal leader Gwen stopped him.

“I need to know, Jack.” Gwen pleaded with him, “I need to know why they did this.”

Jack just looked at Gwen, with incredulity. He couldn’t believe that she really wanted to talk to the sick fucker. There was no making sense of this, and Jack knew that it wouldn’t help to try and rationalize their actions.

“Some things are better left unknown.” Jack said coldly before knocking the cannibal out.

“I needed to know.” Gwen shrieked angrily.

“Nah, Jack’s right, Gwen.” Owen said, “There’s no explaining what going on with these inbreed hicks. This is why I hate the countryside.”

Gwen just stomped off to secure another cannibal, but Jack couldn’t make himself care. He had almost lost his team to this hicks.

It was almost two hours later that police from Cardiff arrived and secured the cannibals. Harry was now awake in an ambulance, and Ianto was being treated on the bumper. Gwen had been pumped up with painkillers, but there was nothing more they could do with her wounds. Gwen was still trying to get to the cannibal leader, but the police was on the same page as Jack and were stonewalling her.

Owen and Tosh had been treated for minor wounds, and had gone off to get the SUV.

Jack knew that this would take a long time for his team to recover from, because the monsters in this case were humans. It was easy to rationalise aliens as inhuman monsters but it was always harder when those monsters were human, but Jack knew. While humans could be some of the kindest, greatest, wonderful species that he had come a crossed, there was also the flip side. In his long life he had seen humans be cruel, depraved, and more inhuman then any alien.

He was sure that Harry had already seen this horrible side of humanity, but the rest of the team had just been brutally ripped of their faith in humanity.

Jack could only hope that this didn’t break them.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**Cardiff 2007 – The Hub**

Ianto and Harry had been taken to the hospital, and after Jack had dropped the rest of the team at the Hub he went and picked them up. Although Harry was human enough to pass as one in a hospital, she still healed too fast for it to be passed off easily.

After they arrived Ianto disappeared down into the sublevels were there was a small barracks from when the team was larger. The rest of the team had already left, Jack having given the next couple day off baring emergencies. Jack helped Harry to the couch where she pulled out several vials from a punch that he had retrieved from her desk. He watched with interest as she downed several vials.

He watched as the bruises slowly fade to look as if they were days old, and the scabs from the small cuts flaked off. She then removed the temporary cast, and was able to stand, the bone apparently healed.

“You okay?” He asked, slightly awed.

“Yeah, just sore. I’m going to take a shower before heading home.” Harry said in a tired voice.

Jack could see that she was tired not only physically but emotionally. He knew that it was hard for an empath to be around such negative emotions, no matter how good her shields were. She would probably find a casual sexual partner to do a one-sided grounding, just as he would once she and Ianto left.

Jack watched as Harry limped down towards the sub-levels. He stood in the Hub for several minutes trying to hold himself together, before moving to his office. He pulled off his great coat, and through it over his office chair, before sitting down. It was half an hour later when the two of them still hadn’t left Jack pulled up the CCTV.

Jack eyes widen before he rushed down to the barracks.

**Half an Hour Earlier**

Harry limped down to the barracks. Once there she stripped down and walked into the communal showers. Ianto was there already, he was nude and his back was to her, but when he heard her he turned only to blush red and turned back trying to hide himself. Harry didn’t have any modesty after her time as a soldier and paid no mind to Ianto’s nudity. After several moments Ianto realized that she wasn’t paying him any attention he continued his shower.

Ianto left the shower several moments later, and Harry finished her shower almost five minutes later. Harry was surprised to find Ianto in his underwear sitting on a bunk in the middle of a panic attack.

Harry moved to him, sat beside him, and then pulled Ianto into her arms. Ianto sobbed into her chest, the emotions of the whole ordeal overwhelmed him. Ianto was so distraught that his earlier modesty was forgotten. Harry slowly let down her barriers and allowed herself to connect with Ianto empathically with a touch of telepath, as she prepared for an intense grounding. She had originally planned to find a random person in a bar that she could connect with, but Ianto needed this as much as she did.

Harry summoned her wand, then spelled on her panties, then transfigured the bunk into a queen size bed. Harry wanted to keep the grounding as platonic as possible because she didn’t want to ruin her working relationship with casual sex.

Harry slowly lowered Ianto to her lap, he just hugged her waist, burying his face into her belly, still crying. Harry ran her hand through his hair soothingly, while channeling magic into the other. Ianto like Jack just seemed to resonate with her magic, so she was certain that her unfiltered magic could heal him.

Her hand glowed white as she ran her hand down his back soothingly, the bruises slowly faded in the wake of her hand. As he calmed she was able to establish an empathic bond, allowing Ianto to slowly detach from the horrors that had happened. This allowed him to deal with the memories without the emotions.

Harry slowly maneuvered Ianto onto his back, and into the middle of the bed. Harry moved to straddle him, when she caught his eye looking for permission. Ianto gave her a barely visible nod, before he fell into the sub-space that she had created.

Harry visibly glowed with her magic as she fully lowered her barriers, her magic unrestrained. She kissed a crossed his face, the wounds and bruises faded under her lips. Her hands moved a crossed his body, soothing the aches and bruises. Harry was actually surprised at the rate that Ianto was healing, but he seemed to amplify her magic.

Ianto responded by slowly moving his hands along her body, he was reveling in his over sensitized senses, and feeling of floating. The pain, and terror of the earlier events seemed to melt away.

Harry was the first to notice Jack hovering in the doorway. She got Ianto’s attention and nonverbally communicated her intentions, Ianto was at first unsure but when he felt his emotions mirrored in Harry he just nodded.

“Jack, please, we would like you to join us.” Harry said in a dreamy voice.

Jack just gave them a wicked grin before quickly stripping to his underwear. He had his thumbs in his brief before Harry just raised an eyebrow, stopping him.

“Had to try.” He said as he crawled in with them.

It wasn’t until Jack lowered his barriers that the world seemed to explode for the three of them. Ianto had never experienced anything like a grounding before and was overwhelmed, Jack and Harry were both experienced with this form of grounding but neither had ever had such a deep connection. The three of them were stunned at the pleasure that a simple touch gave, and soon were thrown into a frenzy of touching and kissing.

Their senses were in overdrive, every touch ignited pleasure, and every sound egged them on, and every taste led to addiction. They had never experienced such pleasure, and it was addicting.

Harry wasn’t sure who fell into ecstasy first, but it pushed them all into orgasm. They all collapsed into a pile of shuddering limbs as the aftershocks the explosive orgasm rolled over them. The empathic bond was like a feedback loop, ones pleasure was heighted by the others in the empathic bond, so it took the almost an half an hour to come down from the high.

It was several minutes after the aftershocks had dissipated that the lethargy set it, and they drifted off in the sweet embrace of sleep. Harry lazily spelled them clean, then conjured a sheet to cover them, before she drifted off.

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When Ianto awoke he was in awe of the peace that he felt. It was if he was floating on a cloud, the memories that had haunted him were dulled, and it felt like he was awaking from a long nightmare. The memories were still there but the pain that they caused was dulled.

Ianto could still feel Harry and Jack’s minds, they were comforting weight in the back of his mind. It was an odd sensation but Ianto could see himself craving it.

Ianto could feel flesh pressed to his back, and front. Jack’s hard body was spooning him from behind, and Harry’s soft body spooned into him. Jack’s arm was thrown over their bodies, his hand resting on Harry’s hip. The intense response to touch that they had experienced last night had subsided slightly but Ianto could still feel a pleasant tingling where they touched. The pain from his beating had disappeared, it was if it hasn’t happened.

Ianto, no wanting to disturb the peace that they had found, began to lightly trace the tattoos on Harry’s left arm absentmindedly wondering what they meant.

Ianto could see his own soul marks as he traced the tattoos, normally he had a watch on to cover them. He had been raised properly to hide the marks, and there was a forbidden trill to see them while in such an exposed state.

Lisa had not been his soulmate, but Lisa’s mark had faded grey when she was sixteen and Ianto had been happy with the knowledge that no soulmate could take her way. Ianto had given up on finding his soulmates, one had an unreadable name and while he could read the other with how many people were in the world now it was only 1 in 50 people that found their soulmate.

While Ianto was lost in thought he had managed to trace down the tattoos to her wrist when he noticed something off about the tattoo on her inner wrist. Ianto felt hope as he noticed the inconsistency in the ink, he knew that it was probably her soul mark, and while it was rude to look he couldn’t help himself. The placement was so closed to his that there was a sliver of hope.

Ianto turned Harry’s wrist so that he could see the mark of her wrist, and Ianto felt the air leave his lungs as he read the names. On Harry’s wrist was his own name, and the unreadable name of their third. Ianto felt as if he couldn’t breathe.

Ianto’s mild panic attack didn’t go unnoticed, as it woke up Jack.

“What’s wrong?” Jack murmured into his neck as he placed a kiss there.

Ianto was unable to answer because his mind didn’t seem to what to work.

Jack after not getting an answer propped himself up with his right arm so that he could see what had caught Ianto attention. Jack could see that Ianto was staring at something on Harry’s wrist, but it was obscured by Ianto’s arm. So Jack reached over to see what Ianto was staring at, and then he too was thrown for a loop.

On Harry’s wrist was his name. His name and Ianto’s. Jack looked to his own wrist, he had taken off his vortex manipulator sometime last night, so his marks were visible.

Jack felt Ianto breath catch as he caught sight of Jack’s soul mark. Jack was in shock, he never thought that he would find his soulmates after he had been stranding in the past.

Ianto turned too looked at Jack, jostling Harry awake.

“Hm, what’s going on?” Harry sleepily asked, as she sat up.

Harry was immediately alert as she felt the mood of the room. Both Jack and Ianto were shaken, she looked around to see what had caused the distress, but there was nothing in the room. When Harry looked back at them she noticed that they were staring at each other’s left wrist. Harry moved around Ianto to see what had caused the distress, only for her too lose her breath.

Harry saw her birth name on the wrist of both Jack and Ianto. She shakily raised her wrist to place it with Jack and Ianto’s that were raised in front of them. Harry could only stare in awe at the marks, and she could feel the awe mirrored in the still active empathic bond.

It could have been minutes or hours before they were able to comprehend what was going on enough to form words.

“I thought that your last name was Peverell.” Ianto whispered, not wanting to destroy the atmosphere.

“I took that name when I took on my Lordships, it was the oldest name of all of them, but I was born Harriett Jamie Potter.” She said in a small voice, before giving a small laugh, “My parents thought that I was going to be a boy, and hadn’t thought of any girl names. My father had joking say that I should be named Harriet Jamie, because I was going to be Harry James. My Mum didn’t like it but the midwife had already written it on the birth certificate.”

Ianto and Jack gave a small smile, as the story. There was a moment of silence before they turned to Jack, for his explanation.

“It’s my name in my first language of Boeshawan, but I’ve been Jack Harkness longer and consider that my name.” Jack explained.

Harry gave him a look of understanding while Ianto was confused but could feel Jack’s unease through the bond so he let it go.

They fell into silence again, and it was then that Harry realised that they were still connected empathically. She was slightly confused because normally after she fell asleep the bond would break. She tried to close the bond, but was alarmed that she couldn’t. She began to panic, nothing had like this had happened before and she didn’t know how to fix it.

Jack noticed Harry’s panic, and pulled her into his arms once he realised what was wrong.

“Ssh, Ssh. It’s okay. This is normal.” Jack reassured her while running his hands through her hair.

Ianto didn’t know what was going on, but could feel that Harry was panicked. Ianto moved so that he was embracing Harry from behind, comforting her.

Once Harry had calmed Jack explained.

“After humans evolved to be psychic the soul bond evolved as well. Once psychic contact was made between soulmates it forms a permanent low level psychic bond. It’s nothing extreme we’ll just always to feel one another, but it could develop if we work at it. With both Harry and me being psychic we are able to sustain the bond even though Ianto isn’t. It also helps that Ianto has basic psychic training.”

“So it’s kind of like how some soulmates can feel when the other dies.” Ianto half asked.

It was then that Jack closed off. He stiffened and moved away from them and off the bed, but the most hurtful was that he closed off the bond. It wasn’t gone because Harry and Ianto could still feel the bond to him, but his emotions and thoughts were closed from them.

Though Ianto was new to this psychic thing, Jack closing himself off hurt. It was if a piece of his heart missing, and he could feel that Harry was in the same boat. Harry might have been able to keep the hurt look off her face, Ianto could feel that Harry was also hurt by this withdrawal.

Jack dressed in a rush, and looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“I gave everyone off until Friday barring emergencies.” Jack said as he left the room.

Harry flopped onto the bed with tears in her eyes, and Ianto also could feel himself tearing up, but moved to lay beside Harry pulling her into his arms.

They laid together for almost an hour, soothing one another from the hurt of Jack rejection. Ianto knew that it was probably due to Jack’s immortality. Ianto had found out about Jack’s immortality by accident when he had been going over CCTV footage and had seen Jack fatally mauled by a Weevil. Ianto had been ready to rush out, but then saw Jack gasp and sit up. Ianto’s suspicions had been confirmed after he sent Jack coat out for dry cleaning and the amount of blood was more than a human could survive.

Ianto wanted to explain to Harry, but even if they were soulmates it wasn’t his secret and he didn’t want to betray Jack.

“Do you want to come back to mine?” Harry asked once she calmed.

“We’ll have to stop by mine. I need clean clothes, and I don’t feel like putting on the suit I have here.” Ianto answered.

Harry’s smile lit up the room, and she gave him a peck on the lips before getting up to get dressed. With a sigh Ianto joined her, not really wanting to get back into the clothes that were crusted with blood, but thankfully when Harry noticed the state of his clothes the spelled them clean and repaired them. Even with the clothes repaired Ianto knew that he would throw them out due to the memories that they represent.

After they were dressed they left the Hub without seeing Jack. They took Ianto’s car and an hour and a half later they found themselves at the door of Harry’s apartment.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is an AN, please read. and there is also chapter 13.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I want to thank everyone who as reviewed and gave kudos to my story. I have appreciated every comment, even though I don’t always answer. Well this break of silence is not without bad news. I’ll say this now, THIS STORY IS NOT ABANDONED, but there will not be regular update. I’m sorry for this, but I have run out of prewritten chapters, and RL is extremely busy and I haven’t had any time to wright. So from now on I’ll be posting chapters as I write them so updates will be irregular. And once again this story is not abandoned, and I will be posting sporadically I love this story too much to stop now. That and it will never leave me alone if I stop now. I however will be giving you a fix today so without further ado chapter 13
> 
> LLAP, Athena8472   

 

**Chapter 13**

**Cardiff 2007 – Hub**

The next couple of weeks were awkward. Jack was avoiding the two of them as much as he could, the only plus was that he was distant from the whole team.

Gwen and Owen were sickening with their affair, constantly skipping off to have sex. Tosh was in a mood, constantly annoyed that they couldn’t keep it behind closed door and off company time. Ianto was also annoyed due to that fact that Gwen had begun to neglect her paperwork in favour of screwing Owen, and somehow her work had falling onto him. Ianto couldn’t even complain because Jack was avoiding him like a plague. Harry was also annoyed with them because they didn’t even have the decency to shower before coming to work, and with Harry’s sensitive nose she could smell everything. Jack was the only one in the Hub that wasn’t fed up with Owen and Gwen but that was because he was caught up in his own problems.

Though the situation between Jack, Ianto, and Harry wasn’t going anywhere, Ianto and Harry had grown closer. Harry had explained where she had come from, and had even taken Ianto to her tent. While they weren’t lovers they were well on their way. It wasn’t odd for them to go home together, and while there were times that they would ground each other after a hard day, they could still feel Jack missing, and that put a strain on their relationship.

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It was a normal day in the Hub. There had been a call that a construction company found a body and a strange object. The scene had been quarantined by the police before they had arrived.

Ianto and Harry had stayed at the Hub while the rest of the team went to the scene. Jack was both relieved and annoyed by this. On one hand he was glad to be out of the way of temptation, but on the other he had to deal with the love triangle that was the other half of this team.

Jack was all too aware of love lives of his team but he chose to ignore it. As long was it didn’t interfere with the day to day operations he didn’t care who fucked who. It was common in the 51st century for entire teams to be sexually involved and it didn’t cause problems, but he had been the past long enough to know that 21st century morals didn’t allow for truly casual sex.

When Jack walked into the tent his eyes were immediately drawn to the device by the skeleton, it wasn’t familiar but obviously alien, it could be a weapon or a giant stapler. The cleanup and containment was relatively quick. Owen identified the body as female, and Tosh was able to date it to the 17th century, and Jack wasn’t sure why Gwen had tagged along because she just stood around.

They transported the corpse and the device back to the Hub. Jack was glad that Harry and Ianto were in the archives today because he really didn’t want to deal with the pull that he felt due to the soul bond. Jack hoped that if he ignored it, it wouldn’t hurt as much when they would inevitably pass.

Shaking those depressing thoughts from his head, he went to figuring out the giant stapler.

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**The next day**

Harry had stayed over at Ianto’s, and they had come in together. Harry was still having trouble with the whole soulmate thing so their relationship hadn’t progressed more than a couple of dinner dates. While they did sleep in the same bed because they both had nightmares, and being close helped, their relationship hadn’t become sexual.

Harry and Ianto arrived once again and caught Owen and Gwen in the back of Owen’s car, it was disgusting the way that they went at each other. Harry wished that they would keep it out of the workplace.

The day progressed normally, Jack was ignoring her and Ianto, Gwen and Owen flirting, and Tosh’s quite jealousy. It wasn’t until after lunch that drama broke out.

Over lunch after Gwen and Owen’s daily romp in the supply closet, the two of them had been fooling around and had knocked the plug from Tosh’s computer. While Harry didn’t know much about computers, she did know that went all the monitors go black and the lights went off that it wasn’t good. Harry knew that Tosh was running sometime of program, she had been talking about it for the last couple of weeks, and even if most of it went over Harry’s head, it was still interesting.

“You two are screwed.” Harry said as she watched the two of them scramble to fix the computer.

“Piss off.” Owen snapped and flipped her the bird, while Gwen just glared.

Harry just rolled her eyes, before moving off. They had gotten themselves into the mess, so they had to deal with consequences. Harry moved off to the kitchen, she and Ianto had decided to spilt kitchen duty he would make the coffee, and Harry would cook. Harry had make that decision after the second week of take out.

Harry only had to wait a couple of minutes before Tosh arrived and blew up at them. Harry was only able to make out the tail end of the conversation, but had heard what Owen has said to make Tosh storm out.

Harry stopped Owen as he walked by.

“You were out of line.” Harry said.

“You’re not my boss, newbie.” He sneered before waking off.

Harry growled in annoyance before storming into Jack’s office, he was doing paperwork. With a wave of her hand the doors snapped shut.

Jack just ignored her for a moment, still going over the file in his hands.

“Do you need something?” He asked, peering over the file.

“You need to do something about Owen and Gwen.” Harry said, frustrated.

“Oh.” Jack said as he leaned back in his chair, giving up the pretense.

“Their affair is unprofessional and is interfering with the team.” Harry said as she fell back into her soldier mask, she unconsciously moved into an at ease stance.

Jack stood and moved so that he stood a foot away from her.

“And what makes you think that you know how I should run my team.” His voice was light but there was an edge.

Harry just shot him a glare, “Their affair is bleeding into the work place, and causing problems.”

“It’s worked so far.” He said, dismissing her concerns.

“You can’t run a unit with such laxity.” Harry snapped.

Jack straiten and turned cold, “This isn’t the military, and I run my team my way. If you wanted that you should have joined U.N.I.T.”

Harry’s eyes narrowed.

“When they fuck up, and get someone killed it’ll be on you.” She said, before turning on her heels and stormed out of the office towards the Archives.

Harry found Ianto at his desk cataloging some Rift junk. Harry went over to her desk, and stiffly sat in her chair, fuming.

It wasn’t until the small digital clock on Ianto’s desk exploded that he noticed that Harry was angrily stewing at her desk.

“What happened?” Ianto asked, curious to know what had upset Harry.

In the short time that Ianto had known Harry, he had never seen her worked up to the level that she was at now, not even with the cannibals.

Harry growled in frustration. “They are going to get someone killed, and Jack is just going to let them.”

Ianto immediately realised what had happened, that Owen and Gwen had finally ticked Harry off to the point that she went to Jack. Ianto had to emit that the two of them were annoying him as well, but he had been with the team long enough to know that if would blow over soon. Owen went through bed partner like candy, the longest he stayed was two months tops. Owen was showing the classic symptoms of Bond loss. His finance Katie Russell had been his soulmate, after her death at the hands of an alien parasite Owen began to use women as a coping mechanism. Owen used women and alcohol to try and block out the pain from the loss of his soulmate, and fill the void that he felt in his soul.

From what Ianto understood Gwen was a Grey Mark, her soulmate had died while she was still a baby so her soul mark had faded. It was said that once your soul mark faded you could no longer love, and Ianto could believe that with Gwen. She claimed to love Rhys, but she was sleeping with Owen, and mooning over Jack, which really irritated Ianto. Ianto felt bad for Rhys, having met him once in a pub, he could see that he really did love Gwen, and Ianto was pretty sure that he didn’t know that she was a cheating whore. Gwen behaviour not unknown in Grey Marks, they are terrified to be alone, but they could never really settle down.

Ianto was snapped from his thoughts when his desk lamp explode. He looked over that Harry, and watched as she clinched and opened her hands in anger.

“What did they do this time?” Ianto asked with a sigh, knowing that it was probably best to calm Harry before she exploded anything else.

“They were fooling around and unplugged Tosh’s translation program. After they were caught they tried to blow it off, then they chased off Tosh.” She growled.

Ianto just raised in eyebrow. They fact that they ruined Tosh’s translation program was irritating, he had been looking forwards to it so that he could translate some of the unknown pieces in the Archives, however that didn’t explain Harry’s anger.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass that they are fucking, but doing it on company time is going to get someone killed. Jack then basically told me not to argue with the way that he ran his team. I don’t get him.” She snarled out before getting up and punching the wall.

And there was the really reason that she was upset, Jack. Ianto got up and walked over her Harry who was now sitting against the wall, cradling her right hand. Ianto crouched down and took her hand into his inspecting the wound. He watched in fascination as the broken bones snapped into place, Harry had explain that serious injuries would heal faster so long as she had magic. So while the bones healed the broken skin would heal slowly over the next couple of hours. Ianto pulled the handkerchief from his suit pocket and calmly wrapped the bleeding hand.

“Why is he doing this?” Harry voice broke as she asked.

Ianto looked up to see tears flowing down Harry’s check. Ianto just sighed and sat down beside her, pulling her into his arms.

“I don’t know.” Ianto answered softly.

Harry just began to sob into his chest, he could feel her sadness and hurt through the empathic bond that they shared. Ianto had been waiting for his break down for weeks, the longer Jack had ignored them the more distressed Harry became. When Harry had explained to him were she had come from and what her reality had been like, Ianto had realised that Harry was old, and that the soul bond was a relatively new thing for her, she hadn’t grown up knowing that someday she might find the other parts of her soul. She hadn’t been given years of lessons on how to cope with the sudden bond that pulled you towards someone, and the emotions that came with bonding.

Ianto found it slightly painful that Jack was cutting them out, he had been given the tools on how to handle the pain, while Harry muddled through on the knowledge that she had been able to piece together. Ianto had also known that there was a possibility that one or both of his soulmates could reject him, while not common it did happen. Ianto knew that if he had found Harry and Jack went he had been with Lisa he would have rejected them for her.

Ianto held her until the tears stopped. He could feel Harry’s self-loathing through the bond, but before he could try and knock that out of her, all feelings from her stopped.

Harry pulled away and stood. Ianto could only let her go, his whole body numb.

“I’m sorry, I heading back to my place. I want to be alone.” Harry said in a cold emotionless voice.

Ianto stood and grabbed Harry’s arm. The loss of Harry closing herself off was painful and was only amplified by the absence of Jack. The anger that Ianto felt at Jack for closing himself off was redirected to Harry because now she was doing the same thing,

“You don’t get to close yourself off.” Ianto said angrily. “Not after you forced me to deal with my feelings.”

Harry was shocked by Ianto’s anger, she had never seen Ianto express such emotion. Ianto was very good at supressing his emotion, so Harry’s was startled enough that she accidently dropped her occumency shields.

Harry was overwhelmed with the hurt that Ianto was feeling, and his feelings only amplified her own feeling. Harry completely lost it, and once again broken down crying into Ianto chest.

Harry hugged Ianto tense body, and couldn’t stop sobbing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Harry sobbed uncontrollably.

Ianto felt his anger fade away as he wrapped his arms around his crying soulmate. Ianto understood that they were both hurting, and the way that they were coping with the pain unhealthy. Ianto was holding in his pain but showing the world his carful constructed mask, that he had months of practice after Lisa.

Harry on the other hand was in a way used with to losing people, but she had never had such a close bond with someone. Jack closing off his side of the bond was more emotionally painful than any pain she had ever felt. After becoming the Mistress of Death she had become somewhat emotionally detached from the living. Harry was completely accepting of Death, she had to be, so when her love ones left in the arms of Death she didn’t morn. Even when she had arrived in this reality and became an empath, the pain from the emotions of others was nowhere near encompassing.

Ianto felt himself tear up as he felt the intense emotions that Harry was feeling, and could only pull her tighter.

“Let’s go home.” Ianto whispered into her ear.

Harry could only nod.

The two of them walked hand in hand out of the Hub, making sure to avoid Gwen and Owen.

As they left through the garage, they missed Jack who was watching them from the catwalk with a frown on his face.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**Cardiff 2007 – The Hub**

Ianto and Harry walked into the Hub looking a bit ragged around the edges. Ianto looked as sharp as ever in his crisp suit, but if you looked closely you could see that his eyes were a bit red, and that he was wearing makeup to cover up the dark circles under his eyes. Harry on the other hand had made no effort to cover up her red eyes and dark circles. Her hair also wasn’t in its perfect French twist, but thrown up in a messy pony tail.

Ianto immediately scurried off to the coffee machine, pulling out the strongest coffee he had, and Harry followed him so that she could have the first cup.

The alarms on the clog door went off, and Harry watched Owen and Gwen walk in. She wrinkled her nose in disgust with the smell of sex wafted over, maybe she could talk to Jack about adding decontamination to the entrances. The stench was quickly overpowered by the wonderful smell of Ianto’s coffee as he pressed a mug into her hands.

Ianto and Harry moved down to the Archives, coffee in hand. Ianto’s coffee would mean that they would be left alone for several hours until the coffee ran out.

Ianto spent his morning organising the Archives. When Ianto was hired the Archives were a complete disaster, and even after months Ianto was still only in the ‘D’s. Even with Harry’s help it was still seven years of disorganisation that Ianto had to sort through.

Harry on the other hand was working on why several tagged Weevils had disappeared. The case was really just a lot of leg work, but since Weevils were mostly nocturnal she had to wait until late afternoon when they woke up. So in the meantime Harry poured over reports, and helped Ianto when he needed it.

They headed back upstairs just before noon so that they could prepare lunch for the team. Normally Harry would have made something from scratch the night before, but last night she had been just too tired so Ianto had agreed to help her carry back takeout.

They were on their way out when Tosh came through the clog door, looking a bit dishevel. The clog door just closed behind them when Harry suddenly felt something try to viciously try to break her occlumency shields. Harry grabbed her head in pain drawing Ianto’s attention.

“What wrong?” He asked worriedly.

Harry couldn’t answer without screaming, this was the strongest attack she had faced since Voldemort. The attack wasn’t anything special, it was just brute force, like a battering ram. Then just as suddenly it stopped. Harry fell to the ground panting, Ianto kneeled down beside her fluttering uselessly.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Harry panted into the floor.

“You are obviously not, Harry. Come on I’m taking you to Owen.” Ianto said as he helped her up, the worry was obvious in his voice.

“No, not Owen, he can’t do anything. We need to talk to Jack.” Harry said, her voice tired. She had been tired before but the attack had taken a lot out of her and with her sleepless night it was taking a toll on her.

Ianto was obviously confused, but started back to the clog door punching in his passcode along with his fingerprint and isis scan. Harry straightened and put on the air that there was nothing wrong, but Ianto could see the tension in her body. The two of them walked to Jack’s office, Ianto was walking close just incase Harry collapsed.

It was a short walk to Jack’s office where he was doing paper work. As soon as they arrived Harry sank into a chair while Ianto closed the doors before moving over to Harry who was holding her aching head.

Jack looked up concerned, while he was avoiding her two soulmates he didn’t want anything to happen to them.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked.

“I’m not sure, sir. Harry and I were just on our way out when Harry was suddenly clutching her Head in pain.” Ianto said with concern. He still wanted to take Harry to Owen.

“It was a psychic attack.” Harry said, as she massaged her temples to try and ease the lingering pain.

Jack straightened becoming more alert due to the seriousness of the attack. He knew that there were no humans in this time period that had the capability for a psychic attack. That only left alien or tech or both.

“Were that able to take anything?” Jack asked seriously, knowing that Torchwood could be compromised.

“No, I was able to hold them off, but the attack wasn’t directed at me. It was like a telepathic explosion and I just happened to be caught in it.” Harry tried to explain.

Ianto was still a bit confused, he had had the basic psychic training that has been required at Torchwood One, but he had never heard of anything like Harry was describing. As Ianto watched Jack’s face became stony he knew that it wasn’t anything good.

“Ianto did you feel anything?” Jack asked, knowing of Ianto’s training.

“No, but my training was only basic. It was only enough to see past psychic paper and whatnot.” Ianto said.

“Whatever it was, it strong. I think that anyone who didn’t have their mind completely shielded would have been effected.” Harry said, she knew the implications.

“So everyone in Torchwood with the exceptions of Harry and myself could be compromised.” Jack said grimly.

Jack knew that who was ever behind the attack was probably after the alien artifact. It was just too much of a coincident that this had happened just after the retrieval. Jack hadn’t even considered a psychic attack on his team, it was the reason that he didn’t do even basic physic training. He had thought that One was just overly paranoid, and that it wasn’t worth potentially causing brain damage to his team.

“Did your people have some way of shielding non-psychics from psychic attack?” Jack asked.

“There is Occlumency which is learned, but you need Magic to learn it. Other than that I don’t know, I would have to research it.” Harry said, her voice tired.

Jack looked Harry over noting that she looked horrible, and Jack felt a twinge of guilt knowing that he was in part responsible for Harry’s state. Jack eyes flicked over to Ianto and saw that Ianto was also in a state, nowhere as bad as Harry but Jack could feel that guilt grow. Jack then steeled himself knowing that he had to keep to his course, knowing that it would only cause them more pain if he didn’t.

“Ianto take Harry home, I’ll ordered chinese for the team. Harry I want you to see if there's anyway that you can shield the team, let me know as soon as you can. I also want the two of you to take the rest of the day off, you both look awful.” Jack ordered, ignoring the dirt look he got from Harry, and the carefully blank look from Ianto.

Ianto nodded in acknowledgement before helping Harry out of the chair. He rolled his eyes as Harry shrugged him off, before putting on a facade that she was okay. Ianto wouldn’t be surprised if Owen called her on it and pulled her off for a complete exam.

Harry managed to get through the Hub without bring attention to herself, but that wasn’t exactly hard with Gwen and Owen fawning over each out, and Tosh in a depressed funk because of them. It was less than a minute after Harry sat in the passenger's seat of Ianto’s car that she was asleep.

When Ianto slid into the driver's seat it took the time to look over at Harry in concerned frustration. Ianto was frustrated that he could do anything to help his soulmate, and there was also the fact that he knew very little about her. Sure she had explained to him her background and how she had come to me in this reality, but she was still closed off. He knew that she was scared of the soulbond, it didn’t exist in her home reality, and he believed that she was scared of getting close. Ianto was also concerned because Harry had been alone for a long time, that he gathered, and was used to going at it alone. He was scared that she would get in over her head and not ask for help, and he would lose her.

Ianto sighed before putting the car into reverse and pulled out of the hidden parking garage. He was going to bring her to his flat because it was ground floor, and if Harry didn’t wake he wouldn’t need to carry her up the stairs to her flat.

It was a short drive to his flat. He had rented the flat when he was still caring for Lisa because it had been close to the Hub and it was decent price. It wasn’t the most glorious flat he had ever seen, but it was cheap and clean and he hadn't planned on being there for long. Ianto sighed again at the thought that his lease was coming up, and he would soon have to start looking for a new place. Maybe he would see if there was something near Harry’s.

Harry didn’t stir as he maneuvered her from his car, then carried her into his flat, not even when he almost dropped her when trying to get the door open. He laid Harry on his bed, before pulling the band from her hair, and taking off her boots and jacket, before laying a blanket over her. 

Ianto found it a bit disturbing how deeply Harry was sleeping. In the weeks that they had been together he had never seen her sleep so soundly, normally she was light sleeper that woke at any movement. She had told him that it was from her time in combat, and that was the season that she was able to fall asleep almost anywhere.

Ianto quietly left the room and closed the door. He quickly penned a note for he just incase she woke up before he came back, telling her that he had headed back to the Hub. He wasn’t thrilled that he was heading back to a possible psychic incursion, but he had to feed the prisoners, and look through the Archives for any references to the giant ‘stapler’ that they had found.

When Ianto arrived back at the Hub he was stopped by Jack.

“How’s she doing?” Jack asked, with barely hidden concern.

Ianto was confused and hurt by Jack’s constant teeter totter between indifference, and concern. He would be concerned, and then it was like a switch and he remembered that he was indifferent to his soulmates. It had happened many times over the last couple of week, and it hurt Ianto’s heart. He just wished that Jack would stick to one and not constantly flop between the two.

“She’s resting, sir.” Ianto said in a professionally, with a blank face.

Ianto watched Jack’s face and shoulders fall slightly, and Ianto felt a twinge of guilt in treating he soulmate with such dispassion. But Jack needed to get his duck in a row before Ianto even thought of letting Jack into his heart any more than he already was. Ianto already knew that he was on his way to loving both Harry and Jack, and while there would be times that Harry pulled away emotionally at least she tried to be open. Ianto as sure that Jack had no idea of what he wanted and this led to his flopping, and Ianto knew that it could be detrimental to the bond, and only would cause them all more pain if it continued. 

“Good, let her know that if she still isn’t well not to come in tomorrow.” Jack said, his voice tight.

Ianto walked off to feed the Weevils in the cells, and after he was done he began to tidy the Hub. He was constantly amased at the amount of garbage that one person could make, namely Gwen. Her desk and garbage pal were constantly overflowing, and he had to empty it thrice a day or it would just continue to pile. She also made twice as many dishes then everyone else in the Hub. Ianto wondered if she was truly this messy or if she just made a mess so that he and Harry would be forced to clean it up. Ianto had been relieved when Harry had volunteered to help with the upkeep of the Hub, so that he wasn’t constantly two hours early and two hours late leaving with still piles of stuff to clean.

It was late afternoon that Ianto was in the conference room cleaning up the pile of coffee mugs that had appeared there when he noticed Tosh hiding out looking distracted. Ianto was also distracted trying and failing not to focus on the pain from Jack’s absence in the soulbond. But ever the professional Ianto pulled on a pleasant expression.

“I’m about to make some of Jack’s industrial strength coffee, would you like some.” Ianto asked Tosh.

“No… No I’m fine.” Tosh answered sound both sad, and slightly distracted.

Ianto raised an eyebrow but just brushed off the strange reaction, attributing it to the Owen/Gwen situation.

The rest of the day passed without incident, and before long Ianto was on his way back to his flat. He arrived to find Harry finishing preparing supper, she looked much better than she had only hours earlier. Harry had made salmon with mixed veggies and a chocolate cake for dessert. Supper was a quite affair, with Ianto relaying the rest of his day to her.

“After dessert I want to head over to the tent.” Harry said, “I want to look into the possibility of shielding someone's mind without them having magic.”

“I’ll come along and help.” Ianto offered, he loved going to her tent. There were so many interesting things, and he was always fascinated with the sheer amount of history contained there. Just the other day she had shown him several scroll of the library of Alexandria, and the sword Excalibur.

“I would be glad for the help.” Harry said with a lopped smile.

They finished their dessert, then Harry apparated them to the front entry of the tent. Ianto felt his stomach roll, but he wasn’t sick like the first time she had done it. He would have prefered to drive, but Harry was leery of having a beaten trail leading to her tent.

“Does Master Ianto need a potion, Mistress?” a slightly squeaky voice asked.

Ianto looked over to see a house elf, as Harry called them. Ianto always found them odd and was disturbed about their relationship with Harry until explained that the bond wasn’t really a master-slave bond but one of symbiosis. The elves magic was stabilised by the wizards magic, and in return the wizard got a clean out. They always reminded Ianto of the stories of Brownies that his mother had told him as a young boy.

Ianto shook his head in the negative.

“No, Dippy, but if you could bring refreshments to the library.” Harry asked, it had taken her centuries to get over fear of giving orders to the little creatures.

“Yes, Mistress.” Dippy acknowledged with a nod of it’s large head, its ears floppy wildly.

When Ianto’s stomach settled they made their way to the library. Ianto had never need a huge book person, but he loved the old tomes in this one. Ianto had an eidetic memory and was able to retain and process large quantities of information, it was the reason that Torchwood One had recruited him.

The two of them poured over tomes, elves were running back and forth through the stacks returning and bringing them books. Ianto was going over the ones in English, and Harry was going over the ones in other languages. Before Ianto would even touch a book Harry would quickly go over it to make sure that there was nothing nasty. Harry had explained that there were some books that she had never touched, she had merely collected anything and everything that had once belong to her people. 

It was a long and tedious process, and they seemed to go nowhere. Ianto thought that the books were absolutely fascinating, they often seemed like something out of mythology or a fairy tale. But Harry would always take the time to explain some of the terminology or the background of some of the more strange things.

TDL TDL TDL TDL TDL TDL TDL

They spend two seemingly spinning their wheels before they had found anything remotely useful. They had called Jack for permission to not come in, and he had given them a three day time limit, if they hadn’t found anything soon they would have to come back empty handed. Ianto joked that the time limit was just how long Jack thought it would take for the garbage to reach critical mass.

They would check in with Jack nightly. One of the reasons that he okayed their research trip was that if the Hub had been the focal point of a psychic attack they would have at least part of the team uncompromised.

They finally found their answer in a thick tome, it’s thick parchment pages felt brittle to Ianto, but Harry explained that the preservation spells would stop the pages from crumbling. The book was in Latin, and Ianto was only able to pick out a word here and there. There were however pictures of several pieces of jewelry.

“I’ve seen these before.” Harry mumbled.

“What are they?” Ianto asked, curious and excited that they had finally found something.

Harry just blushed red, and ducked her head mumbled something inaudible.

Ianto was thrown by her embarrassment. In the time that he had known her there was very little that she felt embarrassed about, so his curiosity was only heighten.

“Come on.” Harry said as she stood, still red face.

Ianto chuckled at Harry's embarrassment, and was eager to find out what had caused it, and wouldn’t mind seeing her red faced again. She was stunning when she was shocked from her normally composed state.

Harry led him down several floors until they were in some sort of vault. Once she opened it he was stunned.

The room was cavernous and filled with shiny gold, silver, and precious stones. The room was light by balls of fire that floated through the air causing the polished metal to shine. Harry led him through the piles of gold coins to where several small chests were piled with keys in their locks.

Harry opened the tome that they had found, to the picture of the jewelry.

“So find a chest and start looking. Just turn the key once, and if it is not there close it then turn the key twice, and so on and so forth. They only have ten compartments.” Harry explained, before pushing herself on to her toews so that she could give him kiss.

Ianto wrapped his arms around her, and pulled his tight deepening the kiss. The world just felt so right with her in his arms. The kiss finished too soon, and Ianto let her go, they had work to do. Though Ianto did enjoy the fact that Harry’s face turned bright red again, and was proud that he was the one to do it.

“Just remember not to…” 

“Not to touch anything, I know.” Ianto her off, it was the twelfth time that she had told him.

Harry just turned and focused on the chests, and in turn so did Ianto. 

The chest were filled with jewelry that was hugged carefully by velvets or silks. Some of the pieces were finer than anything Ianto had seen in his entire life, and was sure that they could compare to the Royal Jewels. Ianto went through three chests before Harry had called him over that she had found what they were looking for.

Ianto walked over and looked over Harry’s shoulder into the chest. Ianto was stunned at the pieces, the pictures hadn’t done them justice. There was just something about them that was alluring, and he had to stop himself for reaching out and touching them.

“What are they?” Ianto asked, in awe.

Harry smiled, her cheeks pinked before leaning over and giving him another kiss.

Ianto supposed the explanation could wait.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning, there is mention of rape in this chapter.

**Chapter 15**

**Cardiff 2007 - The Hub**

It hadn’t been even an hour since they had discovered the chest that Jack called them back in. So Harry apparated them to Ianto’s flat so that they could drive in. When they entered in the Hub they noticed that Jack was over at the artifact that they had recovered earlier that week.

Jack looked up as they approached, his face was serious.

“Were you able to find anything?” Jack asked, in reference to their search for a way to protect the team from mental intrusions.

Jack was intrigued by the way that Harry’s face turned red, and wondered what on earth that she had found to possibly cause that reaction. He also had to scold himself mentally so that he didn’t react physically to the blush.

Ianto chuckled at Harry, who just seemed to grow more embarrassed, but Jack could see that Ianto was also curious about what Harry had found.

Jack had felt himself twitch at Ianto’s chuckle. He really need to get laid.

“Nothing that could be of uses right now. And…” Harry’s voice trailed off into a mumble, and turned brighter red.

“Yes?” Jack prompted, there was amusement and growing more intrigued growing in his voice.

“It can’t help now; I need to do more research. So why did you call?” Harry asked hotly, as she became defensive not wanting to talk about what she had found.

Jack could see that Ianto was a confused as he was, but moved on as she asked.

“I think that Tosh has been compromised by that psychic attack you felt a couple of days ago.” Jack said, he was back to serious.

Ianto looked confused at the possibility knowing that Tosh was extremely loyal to Torchwood, but Harry understood having lived through psychic warfare. Harry could only hope that the damage to Tosh’s psych could be healed, Harry had seen many be consumed by the guilt of what they had been made to do under the control of another.

“This, “Jack continued and pointed to the artifact, “It as two-person transporter. It’s used for prisoner transport on several hundred worlds.”

“So you think that the prisoner was the one to compromise Tosh?” Harry asked.

“But isn’t there the chance that these are unrelated?” Ianto asked, before elaborating, “It could just be a coincident.”

“I don’t think so.” Jack said, “I agree that it could be, but the fact that she was compromised that day after this thing was dug up. No, I think that Tosh was targeted to get to this thing.”

“How did you figure out it was Tosh?” Ianto asked.

“She tried to read my mind.” Jack said.

Harry was alarmed by this fact, no could become psychic overnight.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked in concern.

Jack just waved her off.

“I think that the attack that you experienced was Tosh just figuring out how to use what ever she is using. Her attack on me was much more refined, but still she’s untrained and wasn’t able to break through my shield.”

“So what is the plan?” Ianto asked nervously. He knew that they had been called in for this.

“We’re going to set a trap.” Jack said with a smirk.

TDLTDLTDLTDLTDLTDLTDL

They were all in positions around the Hub. Owen and Gwen had shuffled in not long after Harry and Ianto, and were not happy to have been dragged in before dawn. Now it was just a waiting game.

They didn’t have to wait long to see Tosh lead in a pretty blond girl. From Harry’s vantage point she couldn’t hear them, and Harry was careful to keep her psychic profile to a minimum so as not to attract attention. Harry watched as Tosh panicked when the transporter was missing, her body language just screamed anxiety.

There was a tense moment, then Jack entered the stage signaling them to come out from their hiding places. Jack was busy drawing their attention with his little monologue, allowing them to move without notice. Harry made sure that she was never in the line of sight, and had her pistol drawn just in case it became violent.

It was Owen that drew attention to the rest of the team when he began to explain how he had been able to track the blond, Mary, through her kills. This started Mary on a perverted explanation on how she had come to reside on Earth, and her gruesome path of destruction through history.

Like a switch Mary became violent, and had Tosh with a blade to her neck as a hostage and was demanding the device.

Harry found it hard to listen to Tosh cry and deny that she enjoyed what Mary had coerced her into doing. But Harry knew that Jack had a plan, and that Harry was the contingency, if this went south she was to shoot to kill, even if that took Tosh in the process. While Harry didn’t like the order it wouldn’t have been the first time she had killed an ally that had been psychically corrupted. There were times that their once ally was no longer salvageable, and though Harry knew that Tosh wasn’t at this point she would still choose the team as a whole rather than just one person.

Jack was able to convince Mary to take a hold of the transport. Harry’s hackles raise as the watched the predatory flirting between the two. She had never want to shoot someone as much as she had in that moment, and through the bond she could feel those sentiments echoed in Ianto.

Finally, the trap was sprung, and Jack let go in time for the transporter going off, taking Mary away. It was then that Harry came into view, holstering her gun, as she watched Tosh sag to the ground.

“So she’s home.” Tosh said in a half relieved, half sad voice.

“No, I changed the coordinates to the center of the sun. It shouldn’t be too hot.” Jack said nonchalantly, but there was a bite to the words.

Harry moved over to Tosh as she began to cry again. Harry wrapped her arm around Tosh, and empathically soothed her. Tosh’s emotions were all over the place, whatever Mary had done to her had broken some of the natural emotional barriers that were in place to protect the human mind. It would take both time and help from a trained psychic to help Tosh rebuild those barriers. Though time would heal most of the wounds there would always be mental scar tissue, if Harry or Jack didn’t help with the healing process. This would cause Tosh to always be more susceptible to psychic attack.

Tosh pulled herself together enough that Harry left her to go talk to Jack, who as at a computer confirming that the transport had been successful.

“Tosh is going to need counselling with a mind healer.” Harry said softly as she came up beside Jack.

“How bad is the damage?” Jack asked.

"The natural barriers of her mind are pretty much shredded. She’s felling everything very deeply right now, and she is being effected strongly by others emotions. It’ll heal on its own but she would always be easily influenced if we left it alone.” Harry explained.

Jack signed, “Do you have any experience with mind healing, because my training was on blocking and basic emergency healing.”

Now it was Harry’s turn to sigh, “No, I’ve never really been interested in mind healing. I do have textbooks on it, but I don’t to stake Tosh’s sanity on books.”

“We will just have to try to bolster her defences as much as we can. There are no real mind healers in this time, and it would be too dangerous anyways to let someone else into Tosh’s mind anyways.”

Jack ran his hand down his face in exasperation, this situation was not ideal. There was no way for Tosh to get the healing that she needed, and even if there was Tosh knew too much about Torchwood for anyone to dig around in her head. The two of them really couldn’t do anything either because they were not trained as mind healers and if they tried to heal Tosh they could do even more damaged.

Jack was distracted when Harry suddenly drew in a breath and twirled around to look towards were Tosh was. He followed her line of sight to see Tosh being cornered by Owen and Gwen, and before he could say something Owen and Gwen had walked off and Tosh was rushing out the main door.

Jack moved to follow Tosh as Harry went towards the couple, and for once Jack didn’t care that Harry was going to tear into the two.

Out of the corner of her eye, Harry saw Jack follow Tosh out. She put it out of mind because she knew that Jack would take care of Tosh.

“What the fuck is wrong with you people.” Harry growled at the two of them when she came upon them, and crowded Owen towards the wall.

“Piss off.” Owen growled back and pushed Harry away.

Harry took a step back, but was still blocking Owen from leaving.

“Lay off. Owen didn’t do anything.” Gwen said, drawing Harry’s attention, “You should be after Tosh not us, she was the one that brought that nutter in here.”

Harry could feel her anger level rise with every word that came out of Gwen’s mouth. Even as Harry looked towards Owen, she could see that he agreed with every word that Gwen said. Harry was frustrated that they had no concept of what had just happened, that they didn’t understand Tosh had been raped on so many level, both physically and mentally. And what really torqued Harry was that she couldn’t explain it to them, she would not invade Tosh privacy by telling these two fools what had really happened to Tosh.

Harry really wanted to curse them, and was about to do just that when Ianto came up behind her. Harry took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders.

“If I ever hear or see that the two of you are on Tosh’s case about this, I will be the one to make you regret it.” Harry coldly.

Gwen just fluffed up in anger at the threat and was about to lay into Harry when Owen grabbed her arm to stop her. Owen had felt a chill up his spine, the look that Harry had given them just screamed predator. Owen thought that he was probably the only one that had any real concept of how dangerous Harry truly was. He had read through all the data on her, including the autopsies on the people that she had killed, and the results of the scientists that had experimented on her.

Harry turned and walked over to Ianto who was only a few steps behind her, she brushed against him both psychically and physically as she walked to him. Harry could not however resist one last parting shot and looked over her shoulder to the couple, and with a small movement of her hand cursed the two of them.

Ianto had caught the movement, and could feel the vindication flow over the bond even if Harry’s face was still stony. Ianto felt his lip twitch, as he held back a smile. He was sure that whatever Harry had done the two of them deserved with their behaviour theses last weeks and their treatment of Tosh.

When Ianto had come to Three he had been surprise that none of them had had the basic training that then members of one had. The team had no psychic training with the exceptions of Jack, Harry, and himself. If they had been at One, the rest of the team wouldn’t have made it past entry level without even basic mental shields.

Ianto waited until they were in the Archives before speaking.

“So what did you do?” Ianto asked, amusement colouring his voice.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Harry said innocently, pulling her into the perfect picture of confused innocence.

Ianto would have fallen for it if he hadn’t seen that hand twitch and felt the smugness over their bond. He was sure that the feeling was so strong that even Jack, who was blocking the bond, could feel it.

Harry managed to hold the face for a second before it fell and was replaced by a smug smirk and twinkle of vindictiveness in her eyes.

“Well there might be some questions tomorrow when they can’t stop scratching.” Her voice was just dripping with amusement.

It took a second, but then Ianto was almost on the floor laughing, with Harry joining him. Oh he couldn’t think of a better punishment for the two of them, especially as they had been flaunting their sex lives all over the Hub. Ianto would kill to be a fly on the wall when the two of them confronted each other, or when Gwen tried to explain to her boyfriend why she was scratching her private parts.

It took Ianto almost five minutes before he was able to breath again. Harry had composed herself but she was still grinning like the cat who caught the canary.

Even as they went to their respective desks to begin to fill out the paperwork conserving this latest incident Ianto couldn’t stop himself from chuckling to himself every couple of minutes. Even as 6am rolled around and the two of them headed to the cells to begin the daily feeding routine.

**Earlier with Tosh and Jack**

When Jack caught up with Tosh she was sitting on a bench just staring at the necklace that Mary had given her.

Tosh was roused from her reflections as Jack sat down beside her.

“This has to be the most powerful technology that we have come a crossed.” Tosh said, Jack could still hear the tears in her voice.

“It could topple governments, and destroy armies. Something so small could cause so much damage.” There was a note of wonder in Tosh’s sad voice.

“What are we going to do with it?” Tosh asked, finally looking at Jack.

“I think I’ll leave that up to you.” Jack said.

Jack knew that it had to be Tosh decision, she had to overcome the addictive properties of the necklace if she wanted to recover. If she chose to keep the necklace both he and Harry would have to work to break her of the addiction. She had to be the one who wanted to recover, if they took that choice away they would be no better then Mary who had taken away Tosh ability to chose. There was also the problem that if she deeply addicted to the necklace, taking it away making her go through psychic detox without it could fully break her mind. The two of them would have to tread carefully around Tosh until her mind healed somewhat.

Jack watched as Tosh took a deep breath before she dropped the necklace to the pavement and crushed it under her heel. Jack took a breath in relief as he watched Tosh lean back to look at the sky, tears flowing once again as she gave a somewhat hysterical laugh.

Jack put his hand on her knee and gave it squeeze in reassurance. He used the contact to enter her mind and saw first hand what Harry had told him about the state of her mind. Using the lightest touch, he could he reinforced some of the barriers was much as he could without Tosh realising. It was basic healing that every psychic was taught, but normally it was only used as a stop gap until the other could get to a mind healer. Jack just hoped that it would be enough.

“It was so horrible.” Tosh started, Jack kept silence as not to deter her, “There was so much pain, there were times I couldn’t breath. It hurt so much to hear what the people I thought were my friends truly think about me.”

“There are somethings in this world that we are better off not knowing.” Jack said knowingly.

“Why couldn’t I hear you?” Tosh asked, “It was like you weren’t there, like you were dead.”

Jack had to force a smile to his face.

“I don’t know much a sure felt you try and scramble around in there.” He said lightly.

Tosh had unknowingly hit a sore spot. Logically Jack know that the reason that she couldn’t hear him was because he was shielding his mind, but there was a small voice that was telling him maybe it was because he really was dead. There were times that Jack thought that maybe he was some sort of zombie, and because he already was dead was the reason that he couldn’t die.

“I couldn’t feel Harry either, but I could feel her though Ianto.” Tosh mused guiltily. “They are soulmates”

Once she had heard Ianto she knew that he and Harry were soulmates. She had felt like a pervert when she had intruded on the soulmate bond, but a part of her was jealous. She hadn’t found her soulmate yet, and she longed for what she had left in Ianto.

“Oh.” Jack said, sounding mildly interested, but felt his throat go dry.

“It was as beautiful as it was painful.” She said softly, she could feel herself tear up again, “I think that there is a third in the bond, and they are causing so much pain. I never want to feel that again.”

Tears were now flowing down her cheeks again. Jack wrapped his arm around her, and pulled her into a hug as she cried. There was nothing that he could say that would help, and he knew that if he spoke know that his voice would crack with his own emotion.

He had known that closing off the bond would be painful, and he also knew that he was being selfish. Jack knew that someday soon both Harry and Ianto would leave him even if they didn’t want too. Jack as far as he could figure would life forever, but they would leave though old age, accident, or sickness. It was times like these that Jack thought of his immortality as a curse.

Hearing with such emotion that his soulmates were in pain, was almost too much for him, and made him doubt his decision. There was a part of him that just wanted to be greedy and spend as much time with his soulmates as he could before they were gone, but a greater part of him knew that the pain that he could feel once they were gone would be so much more if he gave in. He just wanted to give in and go to his soulmates, but he had already experienced so much pain in his long life and didn’t think that he would survive the lost of his soulmates if he did give in. At least this way they were already distant, even if his heart ached to push them away.

Once Tosh’s tears dried, Jack tried to lighten the mood.

“What do normal bosses do it this situation. Do I get to hit you?” he asked jokingly.

“I think that there are rules against that.” Tosh said with a teary laugh.

“Take the morning off Tosh, but I expect those file for UNIT on my desk by tomorrow.” Jack said in playfully serious tone.

Tosh gave another small laugh as Jack got up and walked back over towards the Hub.

 


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**Cardiff 2007 – The Tent**

Harry lazed on a lawn chair that had been set out by the elves, soaking up the artificial sun, and trying in vain to relax. She had had a trying week, and Jack had given her a couple of days off. She had taken down a Weevil fight ring, that had been abducting weevils and street people and pitting them against one another.

It had taken Harry 32 hours to track down everyone that knew about the fight club so that she could alter their memories before she handed the whole thing over to the police. So know everyone thought that this club had only been abducting street people and forcing them to fight. She had made sure that there was enough evidence so that the ringleaders would be going away for a long time.

She had come home the evening before and passed out for almost 16 hours.

Harry’s musings were interrupted when a young elf popped in beside her.

“Mistress, book.” She squeaked, while holding the communication book that was connected to Jacks’.

They still used the book because her phone was unreliable around the magic of the tent. Harry took the book from the elf and thanked her, before flipping the book open to the marked page.

_Hub, now._ Was written in Jack’s messy scrawl.

Harry sighed before apparating into her bedroom and got dressed in her trench coast and jump suit that had become her work clothes. She then apparated to her flat where she kept the car that she had bought to replace the bike that had been wrecked by the cannibals.

It was a short drive to the Hub, where she was greeted by Ianto who was waiting for her in the parking garage. She was barely out of the car when Ianto pulled her into his arms and soundly kissed her.

In that moment, she felt relief, and the tension that she had been holding the last couple of days disappeared, almost as if she had scratched an itch that she didn’t know that she had. She hadn’t seen either one of her soulmates in over three days, and while she was relieved to be with Ianto once again it was a bit disconcerting that she was that reliant on them. She had been completely independent for centuries and it was strange to be somewhat dependant on someone, nice but strange.

Ianto pulled away slightly so that he could cup her face with his hand, then pressed his forehead to hers. Harry let down her shield so that emotions could flow between the two of them. Ianto always seemed to know what she need, words meant little to an empath and Harry found that words could not truly express emotions.

After the blissful moment Harry felt Ianto resignation as he pulled away, and fell back into his professional mask, signalling Harry to do that same.

Ianto was glad that Harry was back, even if he hadn’t gone into soulmate withdrawals because he was still able to see Jack. Jack’s distance made him miss Harry all that much more, it was one of the reasons that he was trying to get his field qualifications so that he could go on missions with her. He was happy that they could steal a moment before whatever they had stumbled upon blew up on them like it normally would.

“We are meeting in the conference room.” Ianto said, as he began to lead towards the heart of the Hub.

They were already started when the two of them walked in.

“So is he remembering that he’s a serial killer, or is he becoming a serial killer because of the Retcon? That’s the question.” Owen said.

“Wait a minute,” Gwen said, alarmed. “I’ve taken Retcon."

“Well we’ll just have to keep you away from sharp objects.” Jack joked, before turning towards Ianto.

“Ianto, how many people have we given amnesia pills to?” Jack asked.

“2008, but that doesn’t include Torchwood One, nor before you took over, sir. Before the year two thousand no one kept records on the usage.” Ianto explained.

“Hey, what if they all become psychotic?” Owen said in an almost excited voice, he was having way too much fun with the idea.

“Do you have to sound so happy?” Tosh asked.

“Yeah, I’m just saying, Mean Streets.” Owen said with a grin.

“I doubt it’s the Retcon causing it.” Harry said after looking over the file, “Retcon doesn’t actually erase the memories, they are still there just buried. Gwen’s proof of that.”

“Tosh try to narrow it down with Swanson’s profile.” Jack ordered.

“I’d start with the most resent and work your way back. If it’s still in his hair, then it would have had to been relatively resent.” Owen explained.

“You two,” Jack said nodding to Owen and Gwen, “Start looking for link between them. Find the link, find the killer.”

Jack then looked over to Harry and Ianto, “I want you two to go over everything we got from One on Retcon. They’re the ones who developed it, I’m sure that they did extensive study into it. Alright then, get to it.”

Everyone got up exempt for Gwen, who stopped Jack and Owen before they could leave.

“Jack, if there is a link, why don’t we just ask the victims ourselves?”

“Not the right time for a séance.” Jack said dismissing the idea.

“When I first met Torchwood, you had that glove.” Gwen said.

Owen and Jack both scoffed at the idea.

“No way, not after what it did to Suzy.” Owen said.

“But it brings people back.” Gwen exclaimed, “Shouldn’t we doing everything we can to stop this. It only brings them back to life for two minutes, we could question them.”

“That’s exactly what Suzy said, and look where that got her.” Owen said coldly.

“The glove stays in the safe, where it belongs.” Jack said firmly.

“These murders are happening because of Torchwood, so Torchwood has to do something.” Gwen said hotly.

Jack clenched his hands, before nodding stiffly once. Jack swiftly walked to his office followed by Gwen. Owen went to get the rest of the team so they could meet in Jack’s office

He knew that this was probably a bad idea, but they had nothing really more to go on. If Ianto was right they possibly had thousands people to look through and with only the six of them it would take months before they could track them all down, and that didn’t count the doses that had gone unrecorded.

The secure Archives were in Jack’s office, and he was the only one that had the access codes. There were just somethings that humanity wasn’t ready for, and Jack knew that sometimes the temptation was just too much. That sentiment was exemplified by his team, because even they hadn’t been immune to the temptation of what the future could offer. Such as Owen with the pheromones that he had used to pick up women, Gwen with the ghost machine and her persistent curiously, and the latest example was of Tosh with the telepathic necklace.

Jack had just finished punching in the code when Owen led the rest of the team in. Jack pulled the containment case out of the locker and brought it to his desk before addressing the team.

“It fell through the Rift about 40 years ago, it laid on the bottom of the bay before we dredged it up.” Jack said, “But I think that it wasn’t lost, that someone sent it through the Rift on purpose.”

Jack removed the final seals on the case and pulled out the glove.

Harry’s reaction was immediate, she recoiled in discussed and nearly gagged in reaction to aura that the glove was emitting. It was so vile that Harry actually lost control of her empathy and everyone in the room was able to feel what Harry could from the glove.

Gwen doubled over and puked her guts out on the floor, and Tosh wasn’t that far behind her. Owen was pale and shaky, and had to brace himself against the wall. Ianto was green and didn’t look like he was that far from joining Gwen and Tosh. Jack faired better then anyone else simply because he had psychic shield, but even he could feel his stomach roll with the desire to lose its contents.

Jack shoved the glove back into the case and sealed it closed, engaging the case’s shielding. As soon as the glove was once again sealed away and the aura dissipated, Harry was able to regain control of her shielding. Even though the sickening feeling was gone, it took everyone in the room a few minutes to get control of themselves.

“What the bloody hell was that.” Owen asked, his voice sounding more shaken, then angry.

“My apologies, I lost control of my empathy.” Harry said with a slight tremor in her voice, as she waved her hand, vanishing the vomit that was on the floor.

“That was what you felt from the glove?” Tosh asked, with horror in her voice. That had to be the worse thing she had ever felt. Worse then her experience with Mary, and she had thought that there was nothing that could possible be worse then the violation at Mary’s hands.

“I knew that bloody thing was evil.” Owen said, finally recovered enough for the vitriol to return to his voice, “No wonder Suzy went crazy.”

“What was that thing anyways.” Harry asked, her voice steady.

“It’s the Resurrection Gauntlet, it brings people back from the dead for a short period. We were hoping to use it to see if the murder victims knew anything about their murders.” Jack explained.

Harry scrunched her face up in disgust.

“That’s horrid!” Harry exclaimed, it made her shiver in disgust once again.

“How else are we going to find out what they know.” Gwen said callously.

“Like everyone else, investigating.” Harry said, turning to face Gwen.

Gwen had recovered like everyone else, but Harry could still see that her eyes were still watery from her puking.

“Someone else could die while we’re out investigating. If we have the ability, shouldn’t we use it.” Gwen said, defensively as she crossed her arms over her chest and puffed herself out.

“Doing ‘everything’ doesn’t mean shoving some poor sod back into his decomposing meat suit just that you can ask him some question. Do you honestly think that you are going to get answers from someone who is not only traumatized from being murdered, but also being shoved back into their own dead body?” Harry sneered at Gwen.

“It’s better then doing nothing.” Gwen snapped angrily. “It’s not like it’s hurting anyone; they are already dead.”

“Are you mad, you stupid bint!” Harry exclaimed, finally losing it. Harry was past annoyed at Gwen’s stuck up, entitled attitude.

Harry pointed at the sealed case on Jack’s desk in anger.

“Are you honestly that stupid that you think that raising the dead comes with no price. Things like that always take something in return for what they give, it could be emotions, or memories, or it could even be years of your life. You felt what I projected from that thing, do you honestly think that anything good can come from something like that.” Harry ranted in anger.

Gwen’s face was red with anger and she puffed up more in indignation, but before she could retort, Jack interjected.

“Are you sure about that?” Jack asked.

“About what?” Harry asked, she was still angry and didn’t want to take the time to figure out what Jack wanted, she was kind of angry at him too.

“About there being a price.” Jack said while motioning to the glove.

Harry scoffed and rolled her eyes, she was pissed off. This was only the straw that broke the camels back, her frustration at Jack, and the annoyance of Owen and Gwen’s relationship had finally boiled over. Harry was also angry that these people were treating the dead with so little respect, it just rubbed her the wrong way, and she knew it was probably because she was the Mistress of Death.

“Of course. Anything involving breaking the laws of nature comes with a price. Breaking laws of Life and Death would require a big sacrifice, this thing most likely feeds off the wearers life-force to bring back the dead. And it probably wouldn’t be equal, thing like this never are, it’s most likely that for the minutes that someone is brought back it takes years off the wearers life.” Harry explained, as her anger cooled slightly.

“That explains Suzy.” Owen mumbled, the rest of the room ignored the comment.

“Did they have thing like this where you came from?” Ianto asked softly, all the while sending soothing emotions over their soul bond.

Ianto was referring to reality, but the rest of the team except for Jack though that Ianto was referring to her time.

Harry nodded curtly, “But we didn’t use anything as crude as this. Forcing someone back into their body is pointily and only further traumatizes them.”

“Can you do it?” Tosh asked curiously, she knew that she shouldn’t asked question about the future but this was fascinating.

Harry looked to Jack, and he raised an eyebrow in question, obviously wondering the same thing.

“Yes, just give me two hours so I can get everything ready, I’ll also need blood or hair from whoever we are trying to contact.” Harry said, back in her professional mask.

“Why should we wait when we can use the glove now.” Gwen growled, still spoiling for a fight.

“Didn’t you hear what she said, that glove could kill you.” Owen said, incredulous.

“We will try Harry’s way first.” Jack said firmly.

Gwen opened her mouth to argue, but Jack cut her off.

“If, and only if what Harry is going to try will doesn’t work, will we try the glove. Hopefully we won’t have to.” Jack turned to Harry, “You have two hours, we’ll meet in the autopsy bay.”

Harry nodded, before turning walking to the garage.

**Two hours later**

When Harry arrived back at the Hub she was dressed in a white robe with the slivery Invisibility Cloak around her shoulders, and she was devoid of all foci or jewelry even her hair tie. The robe was sleeveless and loose, and other then the Cloak was the only thing she wore. She had also had to remove the glamour that she normally wore, and her inhuman beauty and inner light was on full display. Normally the ritual that she was to preform was done sky clade but for the propriety of her teammates she had mortified the ritual.

She was carrying a medium sized chest made of blackthorn and had runes for protection and containment carved into it. While it was daunting to look at nothing in it was what Harry would consider ‘dark’ she had just used to chest to transport the tools and ingredients that she need. The chest was in case she summed something she couldn’t control by accident and had to contain it.

While Harry could easily use the Resurrection Stone for this she was always hesitant to just it for something that she could just do a ritual for. In fact, the Hallows were probably more dangerous then the ritual, they were addictive and wanted to be used. It was the reason that she always had maintained another focus instead of just using the Elder wand. She had decided to wear the Cloak however just to give her a bit more control of the ritual, because of the three Hallows the Cloak was the most passive of them.

Harry made her way autopsy bay where most of the team was waiting, Tosh was up in the Hub at her station with her monitoring equipment. Gwen was also up with Tosh, hovering of Tosh and generally making an annoyance of herself. Harry figured that Gwen was sulking.

Jack stood by the autopsy table where the first victim, a male in his twenties, lay. Ianto and Owen were also standing around in case they were needed.

Jack was quite aroused by the picture that Harry make as she walked down the stairs towards them, like some virgin priestess carrying an offering. He had almost forgot how beautiful she was without whatever she used to appear more human. Her black hair was loose and came to her shoulder blades, and contrasted quite nicely with the sliver cloak and white robe. The tattoos that lined her arms stood out exotically against the luminescent skin. The robe that she wearing was very thin and almost translucent, Jack could make out her taught nipples that were pressing into the fabric.

Jack had to discreetly adjust himself to hide his arousal at the sight that Harry made. Jack also saw in the corner of his eye Ianto making the same tell tale movements. Jack almost growled in frustration when Harry became to flush red, the blush seemed to travel down her cheeks and to her body.

Harry almost stumbled at the bottom of the stairs when she towed off her shoes, because of the arousal and lust poring off both Ianto and Jack. Harry had to focus on the floor even as she turned red, because she was responding to their arousal and had to fight not to rub her thighs together. While Harry had no problem with her near nudity, her physical reaction was not exactly appropriate in the company of a dead body and the rest of her coworkers not involved in their odd sort of threesome. Harry just hoped that the rest of the team wrote off her blush as a reaction to being practically nude front of them.

There was a moment of slightly awkward silence when Harry finally stopped, but it was broken by Owen.

“So…” Owen said and clapped his hands together, “Let’s get this show on the road. Didn’t know if you needed the body, so we brought it anyways.”

Owen felt as if he was intruding on something, because the sexual tension between the other three in the room was palatable. While he did acknowledge that he was slightly self absorbed, he wasn’t blind. There had defiantly been something doing on between his three teammates. He was sure that Tosh had noticed as well, and he was sure that he only one that didn’t know that there was something going on was Gwen, and that was because she had designs on Jack. Once again he was not blind, and knew that Gwen was only using him, but then again he was using her as well. Owen was just looking forward to the eventual conversation between the threesome and Gwen, he lived for those little joys in life.

Harry cleared her throat, “No, I don’t need the body only a vial of blood if there is enough.”

“Gotcha.” Owen said, as he moved to the body and inserted a needle into the heart of the victim.

Harry moved to a clear part of the floor, and set the chest down. She opened the chest and pulled out the ritual ingredients that were sealed individually in glass jars, an obsidian mortar and pestle, five black candles, and an ritual obsidian knife. Harry place the mortar in front of her then opened a jar of salt and poured it in a circle around the mortar. She then set the candles in a star formation inside the salt circle, the point of the star at the farthest point from herself.

Owen then handed Harry the vial of blood.

“Thank you.” Harry said before addressing everyone. “So when I summon this guy he will probably be confused, and not every help full. This isn’t like some ghost story where the spirit sticks around to find his killer, it’s more like an energy echo. He will only know what he knew when he was alive, so if he didn’t know his killer, we are out of luck.”

“So how does it work?” Tosh’s voice asked over the intercom.

Harry had to stop and think for a moment on how to explain it without the mysticism that the tome and scrolls used. She had always hated trying to explain something that couldn’t be explained in scientific terms, and what she would give them was a very watered down version.

“When someone dies the energy in their body had to go somewhere, it can’t just disappear. The energy sticks around like and echo of themselves until it can dissipate. What I am doing is pulling at echo here so we can talk to it.” Harry explained.

“Oh so like the ghost machine?” Owen asked, he gave a slight shudder like he always did when he thought of what he had experienced with the device.

Harry gave a nod in agreement, “Similar but I’m not harnessing the energy at a location, I’m using their blood to pull that energy to us.”

Jack clapped his hand, causing everyone to jump.

“Let’s get this show on the road folks.” Jack ordered.

Harry was not alone in the dirty look that she gave him, but complied sat down in front of her circle.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**Cardiff 2007- The Hub – Autopsy**

Harry opened the jars that she needed for the ritual before lighting the candles with a wave of her hand. She grabbed the pestle in her right hand, and with her left she added each ingredient, measuring each by memory. The words of the ritual were mumbled under her breath in the Olde Language, the first language of magic. The ritual that Harry had decided on was an adaptation of the ritual that she had used for years to calibrate Samhain until the time that the shades of her family and friends had faded.

The rest of the team watched in fascination as the ritual processed, as the air became heavy, and they could feel the hair on their necks rise.

After the mixture was ready Harry set down the pestle, still mumbling under her breath. Normally this ritual would be fueled by the magic of Samhain or the moon, but because it was the middle of the day and it was not Samhain night, Harry had to improvise. Harry picked up the knife and cut into the flesh of her thumb before carefully dripping some of her blood into the mortar.

Ianto could not stop the sharp breath he took when he saw Harry cut into herself, and Ianto definitely didn’t miss Jack reaction to it either. The tightening of Jack’s hands into fists to the point that his knuckles turned white, gave Ianto hope that Jack would stop running from them.

Ianto watched as Harry took a small stick and smeared her blood on it before using a candle to light it. The small flame consumed the stick until it hit Harry’s blood, and burst into purple flames, and it was then that Harry dropped into the mortar causing the contents to catch with the purple flame.

Harry watched the mortar that had purple flames growing from it as the mixture burned. She had to wait until the holly stick that she had thrown in was fully consumed before she used the blood of their victim.

Once the Holly was fully consumed Harry poured the blood into the mortar causing the flame to extinguish and a white smoke to rise. It was only then that Harry stopped mumbling as the ritual was complete.

They watched as the smoke from into the shape of the body that was on the table.

“Hello, Alex.” Harry greeted the shade. “There are some people here who want to ask you some questions.”

Harry nodded to Jack

question.”

Unfortunately, Harry had forgotten to ask Owen to remove the body, and the shade had seen his body on the slab and was in the middle of a panic attack.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh my fucking god.” The shade said hysterically as he compulsively ran his hands through his hair as he stared at his body.

Jack had moved over towards Harry as the shade continued on.

“Is there any way for you to calm him down?” Jack asked over the rising pitch of the shade panicked voice.

Harry nodded a bit unsurely, she did have an idea, but she had never had to express control over anyone she had summoned in the past. Magi were normally a bit confused at first, but then would just calm down and talk for a time before leaving.

“Can I get his body removed or at least covered up so that he can’t see it?” Harry asked before grabbing her knife again.

As soon she spoke Ianto moved for a sheet and handed it to Owen who covered the body. While they were busy doing that Harry used the knife to reopen the wound on her hand as it had already started to heal. She used her finger to draw runes on the side of the mortar in her blood, she hoped that it would give her further control over the shade. She hoped that the runes would put him into a dreamlike state so that they could get information out of him.

As the final rune was drawn, the shade went quite and almost looked listless as he floated there. It reminded Harry of how Nearly-Headless Nick had looked when he had been petrified, but at least Alex didn’t look as morbid at Nick had with his head rolled to the side.

“Alex can you please look at me,” Harry asked. She used sub-vocal tones that no human could make so that her voice was soothing and almost took a hypnotic quality. She had discovered that neat trick while a prisoner.

The shade slowly turned to look at her, there was still the edge of hysteria that could be seen in his eyes, but he lost some of the listlessness that he had gained from the runes.

“Is this real?” Alex asked in a small voice, almost childlike. The shade was traumatized from both his murder and coming back to see this body.

“No Alex this is not real.” Harry lied in the same soothing voice. She was not cruel enough to force the shade into reality so she would let his mind go into denial. “Alex this is all a dream, you just need to answer some questions, and then this will all be over, and you will wake up.”

The shade gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Well this is the most fucked up dream I ever had. I’ve got to stop mixing prescriptions and alcohol.”

Harry caught Jack’s eye and nodded, giving him permission to begin.

“Alex, what was the last thing that you remember?” Jack asked, his voice firm.

The shade looked between Harry and Jack nervously, he still didn’t know if this was reality or not. The shade just hoped that it was not and in a couple of hours he would wake up and make a blog posting about his tripping dream.

“Uhm, I was at home, and the door rang, when I went to the door it was Max. It was very strange because I didn’t think that he knew where I lived, and he just kept muttering to himself.” The shade answered, nervously.

“Then what… I mean who is Max.” Jack changed his question halfway through after Harry shot him a look.

Harry nearly rolled her eyes at Jack, she had just calmed the shade down, Jack didn’t need to bring up his death and aggravate him again. The shade looked between the two of them again deciding if he should answer the question. Harry could only give him a smile in encouragement.

“Max, well I don’t really know Max. He was in the same discussion group I was until a couple of months ago, he kinda fell off the map when one of the other members did. We kinda thought that they had run away together, even though she didn’t seem his type. They were always going off together and having secret discussions together, so I was surprised when Max showed, and she didn’t.” The shade rambled.

“What was this group?” Jack asked.

“It was called Pilgrim, we would get together one or twice a month and talk about metaphysical and philosophical matters.” The shade said.

“Who was all in this group?” Jack asked.

The shade rubbed the back of his head in a nervous gesture and shifted in the air.

“If this is a dream shouldn’t you guys already know all this?” the shade asked, still not fully convinced that it was a dream.

“Of course this is a dream, Alex,” Harry said. Using more sub-vocals to the point that, there were almost two tones to her voice making her voice even more hypnotic as she tried to lull the shade in a more dreamlike state, though with the amount of sub-vocal she used she hoped that the others would not be too greatly affected. “This is all a dream, and dreams rarely do make sense. It’s only going to feel like moments but soon you will wake up, and this will all be over. You just need to answer these questions, can you do that for me, Alex?”

“Yeah.” The shade answered almost sounding drugged.

When Harry looked over at boys, she could see that Jack and Ianto were not affected by her voice. They probably had some sort of immunity as her soulmates, but Owen was visibly trying to shake himself out of the stupor that Harry’s voice had left him in. If Harry had been able to see Tosh’s workstation where the girls were monitoring the situation she would have seen Tosh also tried to shake out of the stupor, all the while trying to help Gwen who had fallen completely into a trancelike state.

“Who was in the group?” Jack asked again, but his voice had lost some of the firmness that it had had before. He was trying not to jar the shade from the trance that Harry had put him into.

“I don’t know last names, but it was run by a couple Mark and Sarah, then there was Lucie she was new. There was Max and the girl that he was always hanging around Suzie.”

While eyebrows were raised at the first two names, as they matched with the other murders that had the same MO as Alex’s murder, it was the name Suzie that stopped them. There was only one Suzie that they knew that had access to Retcon.

“What did Suzie look like?” Owen asked, an angry tone creeping into his voice. If it was their Suzie, then it was just another betrayal.

“Pretty, very pretty, was one of the reasons I thought it was weird that she was hanging around Max because he defiantly wasn’t. Mocha skin, black hair, brown eyes.” Alex said.

Owen’s face became tight, and he was clenching his hands so tight that his knuckles were white. Jack too had a similar reaction though his reaction was due to anger and not the betrayal that Owen was feeling.

Harry looked over to Jack.

“Is that everything that you needed from him?” Harry asked, she really didn’t want to keep the shade any longer than needed.

“Yes, we have the information that we need,” Jack answered, his voice tight with anger.

Harry thanks the shade in the Olde tongue, as she did the candles went out and the smoke that had formed the shade vanished.

There was silence after the shade had left, as the information sunk in.

“Well, at least we know who is behind this.” Tosh’s voice came over the intercom.

“Harry, can you do this again?” Jack asked.

Harry looked over and nodded. Ever since she had become the Mistress of Death, she no longer became magically exhausted unless she did something particularly draining that would have most likely killed the equivalent of a dozen Magi if they had tried. Death magic didn’t drain her as much as is would have anyone else.

“I’ll need blood from Suzie though, and I’ll need a bit of time to clean this up,” Harry said.

“You have until Owen come back with the blood,” Jack said while nodding to Owen who got the message and left the room to thaw out Suzie enough to get some blood.

Jack left the autopsy bay and headed up to Tosh’s station to go over any results that her scan would have yielded.

Ianto moved to Harry kneeling down beside her under the pretense of helping her clean, but Ianto was more concerned about the cut that Harry had given herself.

Ianto took Harry’s hand into his own and pulled the handkerchief from his suit and wiped up the blood. It had taken a lot for Ianto to stay in place when he had seen Harry cut herself, even though he knew that it would have healed completely in a matter of minutes. This was the first time that Ianto had seen any type of magic that hurt Harry, she had explained to him that there was always a sacrifice for magic, but he hadn’t imaged that he would get such a graphic display of such sacrifice.

Harry had a small dopey smile on her face as Ianto fussed over her long-healed hand. It felt good to have someone care enough to fuss over such a small injury. She never had that is her childhood, and there were only a few times in her teen years that she could remember, and by the time she was an adult she was the one fussing over injuries.

“It’s already healed,” Harry said softly, not wanting to disturb the fuzzy feeling she had while watching Ianto.

“I know,” Ianto said with a small smile, as he tucked the now stained cloth into his pocket before he kissed Harry’s hand where the cut had been.

Harry couldn’t stop the dopey smile on her face from growing as she leaned over to give Ianto a sweet kiss, that she tried to convey her love for him in. Harry was feeling like a school girl again and was enjoying the feeling.

“Well let’s get started on the cleanup,” Harry said as she pulled away.

“Yes, let's,” Ianto said as he gave Harry’s hand a squeeze before letting it go and getting up to get the cleaning supplies.

The two of them were done cleaning long before Owen was back with Suzie’s blood. While they waited Ianto wheeled Alex’s body into the body storage area and leaving it for Owen to put it back here it belonged.

It was about 20 minutes later that Owen came back in with a syringe of blood, with Jack on his heels.

“Round two,” Jack announced, giving Harry the nod to start.

They watched as Harry repeated the ritual exactly as before, and the ritual when as planned until Harry had poured Suzie’s blood into the purple flame.

Harry’s eyes widened in shock and horror as the flames from the candles shot up until almost 6-foot pillars of flames, and the smoke from the pestle plumed out in an oily black. Harry was only given a few precious seconds to react at the dark entity was more focus on the barrier that she had erected then herself.

Harry quickly cut down her forearm making sure that she made the wound very deep. As the blood gushed down her arm, she opened the blackthorn box and grabbed hold of the large clear quartz crystal that was in it, staining it red with her blood.

As soon has Harry began the chant that would seal what she had summoned into the crystal, she felt a shiver go down her spine as the dark entity focuses on her. Harry’s voice grew louder as she felt the dark entity began to fight her through the conduit that she had created to that she could seal it away.

Jack felt his adrenaline start to pump as the pillars of fire appeared, and black smoke began seeped out of the pestle. Jack was surprised that the smoke seemed to hit some sort of barrier that was outlined by the salt that Harry had poured around the candles. Jack felt his heart jump as Harry cut into her arm, far deeper than the shallow cut that she had to make on her hand earlier, he could see some arterial spray. However, it was when Harry’s voice took on a pained tone as she chanted did the barrier that Jack had put up around his soulmate bond came crashing down.

Jack's heart lurched as he felt Ianto through the bond, the panic, and alarm that they two of them shared, but what was worse was what he could feel from Harry. The echo of pain that Jack could feel from the injury to Harry’s arm was minor compared to the almost overwhelming dark presence that was intruding on their bond from Harry.

The three men in the autopsy bay began to rush forwards, just reacting to the threat.

_“STOP!”_ was screamed telepathically, stopping all three men in their tracks, and freezing them in place as the compulsion took root in their minds.

Harry had managed to stop the men before they could rush in and either disrupt the barrier and let the summons out, or interrupt her which would also allow the entity out.

Harry fought with the entity, which was stronger than anything that she had expected to summon in such a simple ritual. If Harry had known ahead of time that there was a change of her summoning such an entity she would have taken more precautions.

Harry stood, grasping the crystal in her bloody right hand, and her chanting grew stronger as she channeled more power into the crystal, trying to pull the entity into it. A whirlwind grew around Harry pulling on her hair and clothes as she drew more and more magic to her, but still, the entity fought.

Harry was forced back, stumbling and falling to her knees with the force of the attack. Her head fell to her chest as she tried to regroup. Harry had to focus solely on the chant, one missed word could let the dark entity out, and not on the pain she felt. Harry felt tears of pain overflow and fall down her face and onto her chest, the pressure in her head growing as if her voice was in a vice. Harry gathered her strength for her final attack.

Ianto gasped in horror when Harry surged forwards after falling to her knees. She stood, the wind that had come from nowhere was whipping around her as she extended her left hand. A stick appeared in her left hand, and a ring appeared on her left thumb. The glow of Harry’s skin was out shown by the crystal in her hand that seemed to be grown hot as the blood that was on it fizzled like water dropped onto a hot pan. However, all of that was not what caused the horror that Ianto felt.

As Harry stood there, chanting, looking as if she was an avenging angel, blood dripped from her face. Tears of blood ran down her face, blood also dripping from her nose and ears.

With a final shout, and slashing wand movement the entity was forced into the crystal. The crystal lost theblood-redd tone, and when completely black.

Harry once again fell to her knees, and with the last of her strength locked the crystal into the Blackthorn box and sealed it, before she fell face first into the pool of blood that had gathered under her.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**Cardiff 2007- The Hub – Autopsy**

As soon as Harry fell unconscious the spell that she had used on Jack, Ianto, and Owen fell away, and they were able to move.

All three of them rushed forwards to the fallen form of Harry. Jack was the first on to reach her and flipped her onto her back before Owen could stop him. Owen pushed Jack away from Harry before he could potentially cause more damage.

“Jack grab the gurney!” Owen ordered, in full doctor mode, before turning to Ianto. “Take off your jacket and put pressure on that arm, Ianto!”

Ianto rushed to comply and ripped off his jacket, and pushed it onto the gushing arm.

Owen knelt behind Harry’s head and knelt down on all fours so that he could use his arms to brace her neck. Owen used the time that it took for Jack to come back with the gurney to check Harry’s vitals. Her pulse was weak, and her breathing was labored and shallow, and with all that blood coming from her eyes, ears, and nose Owen knew that there was some brain trauma there.

Jack ran back pulling the gurney that was usually stored in the storage area. Owen rarely used the gurney, most because most of what came in were already dead, but it had been left over from before his time. Jack parked the gurney and grabbed the first aid kit that had been resting on it and placed it down beside Owen.

“Jack, I need you to get the neck brace. It’s in the right side pocket.” Owen ordered.

Jack pulled the brace out, and with Owen walking him through they traded Owen’s arms for the neck brace.

“Ianto, try to tie your jacket to her arms, then get the backboard off the wall in the storage area, you can’t miss it, it’s bright red. Jack, you and I are going to have to work together to keep her spine straight when we move her.” Owen ordered.

Ianto managed to get the jacket secure around her arm before he ran off to get the backboard. Moments later, Ianto came running back in with the back board.

“Ianto, when Jack and I turn Harry onto her side, you need to slide the board under her,” Owen ordered.

Ianto nodded, then the two carefully turned Harry enough so that Ianto could slip the board under her. They set her back down; the quickly moved to strap her in.

“Everyone grab a handle, and on three we lift. We need to get Harry on the gurney.” Owen ordered.

The three men carefully moved Harry, being careful not to injure her anymore, and not to slip in the blood of blood that coated the floor.

By the time the men had gotten her onto the gurney, Tosh and Gwen had moved from the main room to the observatory that overlooked the autopsy bay.

Owen barked orders as he tried to stabilize Harry. Owen was very concerned when he noticed that Harry wasn’t healing as she should. Owen had to stitch up the artery that had been cut because it wasn’t healing on its own. From what Owen, had read in Harry’s file from her time at London, there were only a handful of times that Harry’s regeneration didn’t kick in and that was normally after a particularly horrid experiment or long term torture.

It almost an hour before Harry was stable enough for the team to meet in the conference room. As much as Jack had wanted to say down there with Ianto at Harry’s bedside, they still had a case, and they had to figure out what happened. So Jack had force Ianto away from Harry, reminding him that Owen would be monitoring her from his tablet.

Everyone was seated around the table, no one had had then chance to clean up, Owen, Jack, and Ianto were splattered in blood.

“So, what do we know?” Jack asked his voice tense.

“Harry’s stable for now, but I’ve put her in a coma. It seems to be helping her heal, but it’s nowhere near the normal rate.” Owen reported.

“Seriously, let’s focus on what is important.” Gwen scoffed as she crossed her arms over her body. “Harry had obviously failed, and we didn’t even learn anything. Jack, we should try the Gauntlet.”

Gwen at turned to Jack and was trying to give him her best doe-eyed look, that she completely overlooked Ianto until he was right in front of her punching her in the face. Gwen fell to the floor, holding her cheek, with a stunned look on her face. Ianto was standing over her, his face red with fury and with his hands balled into fists.

“You insensitive, cunt.” Ianto growled, “That’s my soulmate that you are dismissing.”

As Ianto advanced on Gwen fallen form, he was suddenly pulled back Jack, who pulled Ianto away from Gwen and into his arms. Ianto felt his anger begin to drain as Jack held him is his arms, and whispered calm words in a language that Ianto didn’t understand.

Gwen’s face twisted in rage and jealousy. How dare that pathetic Tea-boy hit her, and why the hell was Jack focused on the Tea-boy and not her. Gwen jumped up and clawed Ianto’s face before Owen could grab her.

Owen pulled Gwen away as Ianto who was once again rearing to go, managed to free one of his arms to take a swing at Gwen.

“You bastard!” Gwen yelled at Ianto, as she struggled in Owen hold. “Owen let me go!”

Owen pulled Gwen from the room so everyone could cool off. When Owen had grabbed Gwen, he had heard a small almost animalistic growl coming from Jack, and with Ianto revelation, Owen was positive that he knew the nature of their relationship. Owen was not stupid enough piss off an already stressed duo of a triad soulmate bond, Gwen might be feeling suicidal, but he wasn’t.

Jack turned Ianto around and pulled him into his arms. Jack forced Ianto’s head in the crook of his neck so that Ianto would only be focused on him and not Gwen. Jack kept on hand on Ianto’s neck and used the other to pull Ianto closed to him. Ianto stood like a board, his body tense in anger.

“Shh, Gwen’s gone. It’s going to be okay.” Jack whispered into Ianto’s ear.

Jack immersed himself in the soul bond; he hadn’t raised his barriers since they had fallen in the autopsy bay. Jack could feel the void of where Harry should be; he could feel the pain, anger, sadness, the helplessness, and how scared Ianto felt. Jack felt all that Ianto was feeling and shared all that he was feeling as well.

Ianto crumbled into Jack. Ianto wrapped his arms around Jack and began to sob uncontrollably. Ianto felt his knees start to give out, and Jack slowly lowered them to the floor. Jack held Ianto to his chest, and Ianto cried.

“I can’t feel her, Jack” Ianto sobbed.

“I know, I know, love.” Jack’s voice cracking as tears silently fell down his face, has curled over Ianto’s form trying to pull him closer as he joined Ianto in his sorrow.

“She will be, she has to be.” Jack tried to push hope that he didn’t feel into his voice.

They sat together on the floor for several long minutes; the only sound was of tears. Tosh had slipped out of the room shortly after Owen and Gwen, leaving the soulmates alone.

Ianto arms tightened, as the sobs subsided.

“This is the first time that she’s been truly missing from the bond. It hurts.” Ianto whispered, his voice hoarse.

“I know,” Jack whispered, his voice muffled as he kissed the top of Ianto’s head.

Jack pulled away and cupped Ianto’s face in both of his hands to that he could look him in the eye. Jack gave Ianto a kiss on the forehead before he placed his forehead against Ianto’s.

“She’ll be okay, Ianto, we have to believe that. She survived that war, she survived coming here, she survived One, she can survive this. If Owen can’t do anything for her, then I’m sure that there is something in that wonderful tent of hers that can help.” Jack reassured both Ianto and himself.

They sat together for a few more minutes, soaking in the feel of the open bond for the first time, even if Harry’s presence was missing for now.

“You good?” Jack asked as the two of them broke apart.

“Yeah, just give me a moment before you call them back in,” Ianto said with a small fake smile, as he automatically when to straighten his suit jacket, only for that smile to disappear as he remembered where his jacket was now.

“Here let’s freshen up a bit before that, and get your face looked at,” Jack said, as he grabbed Ianto’s hand and led him out of the conference room and towards the washroom.

Ianto felt a bit of confusion until he saw himself in the mirror. There were three deep scratches that went from his cheek to his jaw. Thankfully there was only a small amount of blood.

“Here, let me help,” Jack said, as he pulled the first-aid kit from the wall, then wetted a piece of gauze and gently washed Ianto’s face. “Thank God that Owen made sure that all our shots are up to date, I can’t imagine where Gwen’s hands have been.”

Ianto gave a small shuddered at the thought, before wincing as Jack cleaned around the scratches. Once Ianto’s face was clean, Jack disinfected the cuts, before slathering antibiotic cream, and covering the area with gauze.

“There all done,” Jack announced as he finished taping the gauze.

Both Ianto and Jack felt a million times better once they had washed their hands of the blood, and could splash some water on their faces. Jack to smile at Ianto when Ianto had pulled out a slim compact from his pocket and began to cover up the evidence of his tears.

“Can’t let her know that she got to me, sir,” Ianto said, his voice severe enough that Jack had to give a laugh.

“I think that ship has sailed, love,” Jack said, as he cupped Ianto’s face and gave him a kiss.

Ianto pulled Jack close and melted into him. There was no heat in the kiss, just love and reassurance, which they both needed. The heat would come late when Harry could join them.

Jack walked out of the washroom, Ianto on his heals.

“Conference Room! Now!” Jack bellowed.

Everyone converged in the conference room. Gwen through herself into a chair, and pouted like a toddler, Owen was watching her in case her went off again. Tosh was standing nervously at the back of the room, with her tablet in her hand.

“Come here, Tea-boy,” Owen ordered when Ianto walked in.

Ianto obliged to Owen’s demand and walked over to Owen. Owen carefully pulled the gauze back so that he could see the wound.

“Nice patch job.” Owen said, before lowering his voice, “After we’re done I’ll give you something so that it doesn’t scar.”

“Thanks,” Ianto said, before walking back over to Jack, who pulled him into the chair next to him.

Ianto felt a shot of vindictive glee when he caught sight of Gwen’s face. The left side of her face was red, and her eye was puffed up. Ianto knew that she would have a dramatic black eye tomorrow.

Jack gave a small chuckle and shook his head as he felt the glee pour off Ianto. 

Once everyone was seated Jack began.

“Okay, before we start, we are not going to use the Resurrection Gauntlet,” Jack said, his voice stern.

“But Jack.” Gwen stood slamming her hands on the table.

“NO, Gwen. This is final.” Jack said, his voice like steel.

“But we need to speak to Suzie.” Gwen continued, she was on another crusade.

“Suzie was the one who got us into this mess,” Owen said venomously. “Her and that cursed glove.”

“But she is the one that knows what’s going on, we need to use the Gauntlet to bring her back,” Gwen argued.

“Gwen…” Jack said ominously, but he was cut off by a soft voice.

“What if there isn’t anything to bring back?” Tosh’s soft voice cut through the erupting argument.

Tosh blushed and flustered when everyone’s attention turned to her. Tosh hadn’t meant to get involved, but she had been thinking out loud.

“What do you mean, Tosh?” Jack asked, intrigued by the thought.

“Well, Harry said that what she was doing was bringing back an energy echo, right. So, if we follow that train of thought, then when she tried to summon Suzie, she should have brought back Suzie echo.” Tosh said.

“But that didn’t happen,” Ianto said thoughtfully.

“Obviously.” Gwen scoffed and rolled her eyes at Ianto.

“Gwen,” Jack warned, and shot her a look.

Gwen through herself back into the chair, and was pouting again.

“Tosh, continue,” Jack ordered, his voice a bit tighter than it normally was when he spoke to Tosh, but Gwen was starting to get on his nerves.

“Well we know from the Ghost Machine, that strong emotions can linger for decades. So, Humans are large bundles of emotions, and I guess that the energy that we leave when we die could potentially last much longer.” Tosh continued.

“Ah, I get it.” Owen nodded, following Tosh’s train of thought, “Suzie should have appeared, even though she died months ago, her energy shouldn’t have disappeared so soon, right?”

“Yeah,” Tosh agreed, “So, maybe Harry did summon Suzie’s energy, just Suzie didn’t have it anymore. Just follow me here, it’s a bit of a leap. Harry’s said that things that bring back the dead require something in return, so maybe the glove was taking Suzie’s energy.”

“So, that thing was what the Gauntlet was feeding.” Ianto surmised, his voice filled with horror.

“Oh, my God!” Owen exclaimed, she stood up looking panicked, “What does that mean for the rest of us. We all tried that damn thing, but only Suzie was the only one who could work it.”

“I don’t know,” Tosh whispered, she too looked disturbed.

“It might mean nothing.” Jack said, “We all saw Suzie near the end, she looked drawn and tired, she had insomnia, and would go days without eating. We will just have to be aware of the signs and watch for it. Tosh do you have any idea on what that thing was?”

Tosh looked down at her tablet, collecting her thoughts.

“Not really, but there might be something.” Tosh bit her lip; this whole thing was freaking her out. “There was a Rift spike when that thing appeared.”

Jack drew in a breath, and the room when quiet, even Gwen who had been huffing indignantly in her corner.

“So, it was pulled through the Rift, probably from where the Gauntlet came from.” Owen guessed.

Jack couldn’t help but continue that thought. Owen was right it could have come through the Rift, but there was another side to that, it could have come from the Rift. Jack shivered at the thought, the Rift was a tear in Time and Space, but Jack knew that there were things that transcended both, like the Mara.

Ianto moved his hand to Jack's leg and gave it a squeeze in reassurance. Ianto could feel Jack’s horror, and could only imagine what was going through his head.

“As interesting as all this is, we still haven’t figured out what we are going to do about that murderer,” Gwen said, sarcastically dismissing Tosh.

“It’s not our concern anymore,” Jack stated absolutely.

“You can’t mean that! People are dying because of us!” Gwen said fervently, back on her horse.

“Nah, they’re dying because Suzie probably programmed the guy to kill,” Owen said dismissively.

“What!” Gwen said incredulously.

“Yeah, sweetheart, no longer our problem. That poor sod isn’t killing because of the Retcon; he’s killing because Suzie most likely programmed him to do it. People dosed with Retcon are quite suggestible; it’s part of how it works.” Owen said glibly, not caring.

“How can you say that. Suzie was one of us, so of course, it’s our problem!” Gwen nearly yelled, she turned towards Owen and looked like she was going to maim him.

“Owen, stop winding her up.” Jack warned, before moving on to Gwen, “He is right though Gwen. It’s not our problem anymore, we will give the local constabulary what we have, but we will not be looking any further into this.”

Gwen opened her mouth.

“No Gwen, that’s final. We aren’t going to debate this anymore.” Jack said stonily.

Gwen went to speak again, but sat back down and sunk into her chair with the glare that Jack gave her.

“Gwen go home, Tosh get a hold of Det. Swanson and let her know what we know. Make sure to let her know if needs any further help with this to get a hold of us. Owen stay back of a sec.” Jack ordered.

Tosh walked out of the room, already with her phone out. Gwen walked off in a huff and was most likely going to be impossible to work with for the next couple of weeks.

Once the girls were gone, Jack looked over to Owen.

“How is Harry doing?” Jack asked, concerned.

Jack felt Ianto tense beside him, so Jack grabbed his hand under the table.

“Well usually I would say patient confidentially and for you to piss off, but since Ianto let the cat of the bag, I guess congrats are in order.” Owen gibed.

“Owen get to the point,” Jack growled, no in the mood for Owen’s normal behavior.

“Yeah, yeah. I forgot how touchy soulmates could be.” Owen complained.

Jack gave Owen a dark look. Owen decided that he wasn’t going to tease the obviously stressed soulmates anymore, has much fun as it was to have something that Jack reacted to.

“If you want my honest doctorly opinion, I wouldn’t expect much, and she probably has brain damage. But from my Torchwood background, I would say that she will probably be fine in a couple of days.” Owen said, couldn’t stop himself from one more jibe

Owen, seeing that Jack was about to explode at him, and Ianto didn’t look all that far away from it either, Owen turned serious.

“Okay, seriously now. I don’t know. Though Harry looks human, she isn’t; there are organs and tissues that I have no idea what they do. Even London, when they had her, hadn’t been able to figure of some of her bodily functions, and they had a hundred years to study her. But going off what I’ve read from the London file, and was I have observed, she should wake up sometime in the next couple of day. Probably sooner, if I knew which one of those potion things to give her.” Owen explained.

“Can we move her?” Ianto asked, he wanted to stay with her but didn’t want to stay in the autopsy bay.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t take her out of the Hub just in case. There is the old infirmary in the sub-levels, but I don’t know if Tea-boy here has kept it clean.”

“It is, the sub-level rooms are on a monthly clean schedule,” Ianto said.

“Then fill your boots, just call me if her condition changes,” Owen ordered before he dismissed himself and walked out of the room.

“Come on, let’s get her settled,” Jack said.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**Cardiff 2007- The Hub – Sub-levels**

Owen, Jack, and Ianto maneuvered the gurney towards the rarely used elevator that was barley big enough for the bed. Owen managed to squeeze on so he could operate the elevator while the other two took the stair down. The three men carefully moved the gurney to the old infirmary.

The infirmary was left over from the time that Torchwood Three had more members. In the past there were upwards to twenty to thirty people that worked and lived in Three, before their budget was cut and more focus was made to One. About 20 years ago it had been decided to move more funding to One, because they were discovering more useful tech, and were able to create new weapons for the Crown to better defend Earth. The Rift had a kitchen sink effect, meaning Three got anything and everything that came through, most of it junk.

The infirmary looked like an old style hospital ward, with ten iron rod beds that were covered with plastic sheets to keep the dust from the bare mattresses. There was old medical equipment that was pushed up against the wall, and several empty cabinets, and they too were covered in plastic sheeting. The whole place looked like you were stepping 100 years in the past and it was no wonder that it wasn’t used for its original purpose any more.

The men moved several of the beds together to make room for the gurney, and Owen went about setting up the I.V. and portable monitors.

“God this place makes me cringe, no sanitation, and I think that there is an electro-shock machine in the corner.” Owen griped, before turned towards Jack and Ianto who both looked very annoyed with Owens bitching. Owen continued to talk, “Anyways, everything is set up, and I don’t expect there to be any problems. The monitor will let me know if anything goes wrong. If you need me I’ll be upstairs.”

Owen left the room, while Jack and Ianto took up their vigil of Harry, sitting together on one of the beds after having removed the plastic. The two them sat in silence for a moment, before Ianto began to quietly sob to himself as the day’s events caught up to them. Jack pulled Ianto into his arms, and the other man broke down. Jack ran his hand through Ianto’s hair soothingly as Ianto cried into his shirt. This time Ianto and Jack had nowhere else to be, so Ianto didn’t have to pull himself together as all the emotions of the day washed over him.

Soon Ianto was rung out as the emotions and the exhaustion of the day took their toll, and Ianto fell into a slumber. Jack gently laid Ianto down on the bed, and then got up and explored the cabinets looking for a blanket. Jack found an old wool blanket that was in good condition and tucked it around Ianto’s sleeping form.

As both of his soulmates slept, Jack was left alone with his thoughts. Today his fears were almost realised, even with Harry’s advanced healing she had almost died. Jack’s greatest fear was that he was going to outlive his soulmates; it has been a fear in the back of his mind since that he had found out that he was immortal. However in all the scenarios that he had created in his head, he had always thought that they would die from old age. It hasn’t crossed his mind that they could be killed by other means, and in some way Jack had had the arrogant thought that he would have been able to save them. Jack was now faced with the possibility that they would die, sooner rather than later as most Torchwood employee only had a life expectancy of 10 years in the agency if they were lucky. Then again some of the ones that survived pass that expectancy are so messed up that they couldn’t live a normal life, in fact there were several former Torchwood employees that were permanent residents of Flat Holm.

Jack watched as Harry’s chest rose and fell, and as colour slowly came back to her pale skin. Normally Harry had pale skin that seemed to have a glow about it even with whatever she did to hind the luminescent glow that she had. However now her skin was pale as a sheet, and the glow was absent, if not for the monitor showing that her heart was still beating and the rise of her chest, Jack would have thought that she was dead.

It was as Jack was watching Harry that he came to a decision. Jack had many regrets in his long life, so Jack decided that his soulmates would not be one of them. He had thought that he would be able to avoid the pain from losing his soulmates, but this incident proved that no matter what he would still feel the pain of losing them. So Jack was going to enjoy his soulmates for as long as he had them, even if it would break him once they were gone. Jack had been broken in the past, but he had always been able to remake himself. So now in the near future once Ianto and later Harry, who had a longer life span, had passed Jack would remake himself again, this time he would have to remake himself with the pain of a broken soul.

**Two Day Later**

Ianto and Jack had continued their vigil, often switching out when there was something that demanded their attention, but one of them would always stay with Harry. Owen was constant presence in the room, as he came to check Harry’s vitals every three hours. Owen had been uncharacteristically quite in his visits to check on Harry, he didn’t make any smart-ass remarks and the sarcasm was missing. Owen was most likely falling back on old training from his days as a doctor. Soulmates were notoriously volatile when one of them was injured.

While Owen was a welcome presence, there was one very unwelcomed presence that was lurking outside the room. Gwen had only made the mistake once of coming in trying to get Jack’s attention, she had to be dragged out of the room after she had made thinly veil suggestions for Jack to abandon Harry and go home with her. She was lucky that Owen had arrived shortly after and kept her from getting another punch to the face, because Jack looked murderous. Not that Gwen noticed as lurked around the sub-basement waiting for Jack to leave when there was something that he couldn’t get away from and had to take care of. Tosh saved them a lot of headaches, and in Gwen case bodily injuries, when she had fixed the lock on the old infirmary and keyed it so that Gwen didn’t have access.

“Well I feel that it’s safe to tale her off sedation.” Owen said after looking at the monitor. Owen had kept Harry sedated to help speed long the healing.

“Are you sure?” Ianto asked, as he watched Owen fiddle with the I.V.

“Yeah, no much point of keeping her sedated. The wounds have closed up, and she’s got her colour back. The only reason I kept her sedated so long was that her vitals still hadn’t returned to normal, well normal for her anyways. They aren’t back up to where they should be, but they have stabilised.” Owen explained, as he removed the I.V. “She should come out of it soon, considering how fast she metabolizes the meds.”

Owen left the room, wheeling the I.V. stand out.

“Call me if anything goes wrong.” Owen called has he walked out.

Jack and Ianto stood on either side of the bed, each holding a hand, while they waited for Harry to wake up. They didn’t have to wait long as not even 10 minutes later; they felt Harry’s presence slowly return to their bond. The presence was sluggish and not coherent, then main thing that they could feel was confusion and a bone deep tiredness.

“Please come back to use, _cariad bach_.” Ianto whispered to her.

They felt her become more aware, but she still wasn’t back. Jack leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

“Come on, beautiful, we are both waiting for you.” Jack told her.

Her presence came into focus as Jack spoke, and they could feel both hope and weariness as Harry’s eyes slowly opened.

Jack felt a pang in his heart at the weariness that Harry felt about him.

“There are those lovely eyes.” Jack said, and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

Ianto leaned down and gave Harry a kiss as he pulled her into his arms.

“Don’t every do that again, _cariad bach_.” Ianto said as she squeezed her tight.

Harry was slightly confused, she didn’t remember what had happened and she was still groggy from the medication. After a minute or so, everything came back to her, and she shivered at the memory of the entity.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart. Are you in pain?” Jack asked, as he reached to hit the button that would call Owen down.

“No, I’m just remembering.” Harry said as she shivered again, she still felt like she had traces of the entity’s oily presence on her skin. The feeling probably wouldn’t go away until she performed a cleansing ritual.

Harry’s word brought the room down from the high they had been at to a more somber tone, as they all thought back to the reason that Harry was in that hospital bed. There was a momentary pause as Ianto rearranged Harry and himself, so that Ianto was sitting in the bed behind Harry, with Harry resting on his chest. Jack made sure that he kept her hand his, physical proof that he wasn’t going anywhere.

“What was that thing?” Jack asked, referring to the entity.

“I don’t know.” Harry said in a small voice, “It was old, very old. I felt anger and hatred from it; it was like a cold fire that had been waiting for a long time to reignite. It could only be described as pure concentrated evil.”

“You’ve never come across anything like it before?” Jack asked.

“No, and I have no idea what it could be. I just know that whatever it was, it had a plan. It wants to be free from where it is trapped, and I think that the wheels have been in motion for that to happen for a very long time.” Harry said, still periodically shivering.

“You think that we are being manipulated by this thing.” Ianto stated in a somber tone, realising where she was going with this.

“Yes, I don’t think that it is a coincidence that that glove appeared near the Rift. I think that someone is working behind the scenes to make sure that whatever that was gets out. Suzie was obviously a pawn, she was used by the Glove, and even in death she set up a situation that could have forced you to use the Glove again.” Harry explained.

“We will have to be on guard.” Jack said, not liking that they were possibly being manipulated.

Jack knew from his travels with the Doctor that there were somethings in the universe that you just left alone. They were old and powerful, and they were not mean for humans.

“Is there anything that we can do to protect ourselves?” Jack asked, knowing the metaphysical was Harry’s realm of expertise.

A faint blush came over Harry’s face.

“The artifacts that Ianto and I found would be able to help better protect us.” Harry said there was trace of embarrassment in her voice.

Ianto and Jack looked at one another in amusement; it wasn’t often that Harry was embarrassed about anything. The two of them had tried to get Harry to tell them what the jewelry that they had found was for, but she would just turn red and evade the question. However they now had the feeling that Harry would have to explain.

“What are they, Harry?” Ianto asked, knowing that this time he would have the answer.

Harry went bright red. “They are an integral part of a bonding ritual that was once used when by people formed Covens.”

“Covens?” Jack questioned, as times Jack couldn’t believe how stereotypical the Magi people could be, but then again he had seen Harry’s flying broom collection.

“It wasn’t a practice of modern times, it had fallen out of favour then they discovered how to make crystal foci that were attuned to the individual.” Harry explained, “In ancient times we would bind ourselves together in covens to stabilize our magic. It was also provided more safety because not only were individuals able to better use their magic, but they were also more powerful because they could borrow magic from others in the coven. A single Magi was not much of a threat, but a coven of Magi could do things that no individual could.”

“I don't understand, why the embarrassment?” Ianto asked, his face showing his deep confusion. It didn’t seem like such a big deal, and she didn’t really explain why she was embarrassed.

“It fell out of use because it was the most intimate and most dangerous thing a Magi could do. It was a topic in most romance novels because it was considered the most intimate bond we could create.” Harry said.

She embarrassed that she was even talking about the subject, as it wasn’t something that was ever discussed in good company. Talking of such bonds was akin to openly talking about the more intimate details of your bedroom in the middle of a crowded room of strangers. The thought of bonding your Magi, your very self, to another was the basis of many witches fantasies, and the topic of many romance novels that would circulate though the dorms of Hogwarts and Ladies tea circles.

Jack let out a chuckle at the mental image of a teenage Harry secretly reading romance under her covers so that no one would know. Ianto was trying very hard not to join Jack and laugh.

“It’s not funny.” Harry said, completely embarrassed by the situation and turning a whole new colour of red. “Coven Bonds would be like soulmate bonds here, but much more.”

That heightened the curiosity of both men.

“How so?” Ianto asked, voice the questions for both men.

“Sharing magic is sharing everything that you are your very life force. Everything has a spark of Magic, it is the deference of Life and Death; even those that can’t use Magic like yourselves has a spark of Magic. To be in a Coven Bond you share your very life force with people that you have to trust with your very live.” Harry explained, losing some of her blush as she explained the seriousness.

“There is an entire tome collection dedicated to Coven Bonds that have gone wrong. There are instances of one member pulling the very life force of the rest in the Coven, killing them all. There were several Covens where an older charismatic leader would bind others in a Coven bond so that they would be used as basically living batteries for the power of the Leader. While there are benefits to a Coven bond, there is also the possibility for abuse of the bond.” Harry explained.

That brought both men up short, suddenly it wasn’t so funny. Ianto thought of Gwen and knew that he would never want to be in a bond like that with her if there was a chance of Gwen killing him or any of his soulmates in her selfishness.

“How would such a bond help us?” Jack asked his thoughts on the same page as Ianto.

“Well Covens have to be formed with a certain number of people, 3, 5 7, 9, or 13 people. Any more than 13 people, the Coven becomes too overloaded and too complex to be useful. The main core of the Coven would be bonded together the most tightly, and then there would be a secondary protectorates bond that would be bound to the core Coven. The protectorates are not as closely bound, and their bonds are breakable. The secondary bond was mostly used for children of the Coven, providing the protection of the Coven while being free enough to leave if they were to join a new Coven.

“The protectorate bonds were also used for others that followed the Coven. There was a time that Covens were their own tribe, a community that would follow the Coven for protection. The Coven would be their leaders and protectors, and the protectorates would work and provide for the Coven and the tribe.”

“So the three of us would form the core Coven, and then we would take the others in as protectorates?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Harry answered, “Once under the protectorates bond I could extend my own mental shields to protect their minds, they would most likely heal faster, and they would develop some minor psychic abilities. There might even be some benefits for Owen and Gwen who have lost their soulmates, I could help soothe the loss of that bond, but I’m not sure. There was nothing like a soulmate bond in my reality so I can only guess.”

They could see that Harry was starting to flag as she continued to talk, she was still not fully recovered, and Jack was concerned that she was still shivering intermittently.

“We will have to discuss this more late.” Jack said, “We should get you home.”

Ianto nodded and they maneuvered Harry so Jack could lift her into his arms bridal style.

“There are some tomes that we can go over if you want more detailed information.” Harry said, as she snuggled into Jack’s chest, enjoying the warmth.

“So you want to go to the tent?” Ianto asked, as they walked out of the room and towards the elevator.

“Yes, but we should go to my flat. I’m not in any condition to apparate us there, and it’s too long of a hike. I have a portkey at the flat.” Harry mumbled, as she slowly fell asleep.

“Portkey?” Jack asked, but there was no answer.

“She is asleep, cariad.” Ianto said as Jack looked over to him for an answer, “And I have no idea what a portkey is, she had never mentioned them before.”

The two men made their way to Ianto’s car, they passed Owen who was hanging around the Hub, but it was late at night and they were the only ones there.

“Owen don’t wait up, I’ll give you a call if we need you.” Jack said.

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Owen said as he grabbed his coat and headed out the door.

The trio headed over to Harry’s flat, where they were met with a worried House Elf. Jack hadn’t been introduced to the House Elves yet, and his first instinct was to draw his gun but that was hampered by the fact that he was holding Harry. Ianto on the other had recognized the small creature that was wringing its hands in worry.

“Mistress Harry!” The House Elf cried, before devolving into tears. “Mipsy is being so happy Mistress is okay.”

The sound of the hysterically crying House Elf woke Harry.

“Mipsy what are you doing here.” Harry asked confused as she looked around and realized that she was at her flat and not there tent. The House Elf was out of place in the in the mundane flat.

“Wes all be worrying about Mistress. Wes were scared that Mistress had been taken by filthy muggles again.” Mipsy cried. “Mipsy knows that Mistress said not to come tos the flat, but Mipsy had too. Mipsy has already punished herself.”

Harry looked over Mipsy and could see burns on her hand. Harry sighed as she watched the old House Elf. Mipsy had been one of the young Elves that she had taken in, but she had been with a Pureblood household long enough to pick up the self-abusing habits. Mipsy was one of the only House Elves still alive from when she had come to this reality, but she was getting up in the years and was becoming batty.

“Who is this?” Jack asked, as he relaxed after seeing that both Harry and Ianto seemed to know the small creature.

“Jack this is Mipsy. Mipsy is a House Elf and is a servant of sorts.” Harry said, as Jack put her down on the sofa. “Don’t worry she is only harmful to herself. I’ve tried to stop her self-harming, but it was ingrained from her previous family.”

Jack just raised an eyebrow.

“Mipsy please grab the portkey from the bedroom.” Harry ordered.

“Right away, Mistress.” Mipsy said, nodded her head causing her ears to flap wildly.

Mipsy when into the bed room and came back with a pillow, and handed it to Harry.

“Here grab a hold of the pillow.” Harry said.

Both Ianto and Jack gave her a skeptical look, but still grabbed a hold of the pillow.

“Don’t let go. _Domum_.” Harry said activating the portkey.

The three of them disappeared in a flash, and shortly after Mipsy disappeared from the room with a pop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been just over a year since I posted. Don't worry I have not abandoned this story, but I can't promise when I will update. RL is really busy, and to be honest I has lost my motivation to write. I don't know how long I will be on this writing kick, but I will be posting chapters has I write them.  
> Peace and Long Life,   
> Athean8472


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**Cardiff 2007- Harry’s Tent**

Harry’s body felt like lead as she finished setting up the cleansing ritual. The ritual room that she was in was in the lower level of the tent, it was a room that looked as if it was craved from stone; the whole room was lined with obsidian. In the middle of the room there was a large tub that was craved solid peace of quartz crystal. The tub was large enough to fit at least 7 fully grown adults in it comfortably, it was an artifact that was thousands of years old and there wasn’t another like it. It was said that it was one of the few artifacts that survived the fall of Atlantis, and had been used for by the Goblins for cleansing rituals for those who could pay for it. It had come into Harry’s possession of the genocide of the Goblin race in 2053.

She lit the last candle and finished placing the citrine crystals around the circular tub, before dumping the mixture of salt, healing herbs, and oil into the water. She then asked Grannus, the Celtic god of healing thermal and mineral springs, to bless the water and grant it purity. Harry felt a wind pick up from nowhere and the candles flicker momentarily as the ritual magic took hold.

Harry carefully slid into the water as the tub was quite deep. She submerged herself completely under the water, before letting herself float on the surface. She wasn’t scared of drowning because there were enchantments craved into the stone that prevented it. The water was a comfortable temperature, the enchantments made sure the water wouldn’t cool, and it lulled Harry into half-asleep meditative state. She floated there as the crystal clear water turned black with the impurities that were tainting Harry.

**Meanwhile**

In another part of the tent, Jack walked aimlessly through the tent exploring the room. He was a bit put out that he hadn’t been able to speak to either Ianto or Harry before they had gone off on their own, but he understood. Harry had said something about a cleansing ritual she had to do, and Ianto who was exhausted after the last couple of days passed out on the nearest bed. He and Ianto hadn’t spoken much while Harry was still recovering, and Ianto had run himself into the ground only getting a couple hours sleep in the last three days. Jack had gotten about the same amount of sleep as Ianto, but his advance physiology meant that he didn’t require as much sleep as a human from the 21st century.

Jack had only been in the tent once before and was curious what was held in it after hearing some of Harry’s stories. For the most part all the room were unlocked, but he had come across several that were locked. When he had tried to pick the lock, he had been stopped by and irate House Elf that told him the room was locked for a good reason and to stop. Well at least that was Jack’s translation of the very bad English that the little creature spoke.

The tent reminded Jack of the TARDIS and filled him with nostalgia as he walked through the halls. He wasn’t sure if the tent had the same consciousness as the TARDIS did, but it has the same quirkiness with the hallways that never seemed to end and would be different when he turned around. Eventually Jack found himself in an old bedroom that showed the owner had stayed there from early childhood to teenage hood, as the room showed evidence of that evolution. The only thing that stood out of place was a large ornamental picture frame that was blank; it was on the wall covering some posters that looked like they had come from a swimsuit magazine.

The room stood apart from the rest of the tent as it was one of the few rooms that looked lived in and not like and exhibit in a museum. The bed was unmade and there looked to be old laundry on the floor, but Jack could tell that no one had lived in it for a long time. The room smelled of dust and there wasn’t a trace of the scent of the owner, there was only a slight scent of Harry meaning that she had visited the room some time recently. The room reminded Jack of the rooms of murdered children when their parents turned them into a shrine of the last time the child was in the room, it was like a moment frozen in time.

“What are you doing in my room?” An unknown voice asked.

Jack nearly jumped in fright as he spun around to look for the owner of the voice. No one had entered the room, but Jack then noticed that the picture frame was no longer empty. Now in the frame was a portrait of a middle aged man with bright teal hair and familiar green eyes, and Jack had to do a double take when he saw the portrait move.

“I asked you a question.” The man in the portrait said somewhat annoyed.

“I was just exploring.” Jack answered, “This is one of the few rooms that didn’t look like it was a museum.”

The man snorted, “I’ve told mum that she needed to liven up the place. I’m Edward Lupin but call me Teddy, and who are you and why are you wandering around mum’s sanctuary.” He asked.

“Captain Jack Harkness.” Jack introduced himself with a playful grin.

Teddy seemed to lean back in the portrait and gave Jack a look over.

“So you are the ‘soulmate’ that’s been giving Mum grief.” Teddy said contemplatively.

Jack paused at the implications, Teddy was Harry’s son and she had apparently had been talking to him about her love life.

“Well I plan on making up for that, son.” Jack said.

“You better. Mum has been through too much, and this is the first time since she was 17 that she had opened herself up to date again.” Teddy said.

That brought up Jack up short, he knew that Harry was older than him she should have had other romantic relationships before them. Before Jack could ask any questions Teddy motioned to him.

“Come on, I want to introduce you to some of the others.” Teddy said, before walking out of the frame.

Jack stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do, before Teddy’s head popped back into the frame.

“Go to the corridor.” Teddy said before leaving the frame again.

Jack walked out of the room, and saw Teddy in a painting of a field. Teddy motioned for Jack to follow as he moved out of that painting and to one of a library further down the hall. Teddy led Jack down the hall and to a room that wasn’t that far from Teddy’s room. Jack entered the room and found a sitting room with plush furniture, but the focal point of the room was a painting of a sitting room that looked very similar to the one that he was standing in. In the painting Teddy was sitting in one of the chairs, but he wasn’t alone. In one of the chairs was an older woman who looked to be in her sixties, she had long curly black hair that has a shocking streak of white in it. In the other chair was a middle aged man with longer red hair with mischievous eyes, he was also missing an ear and had an impressive scar on the side of his face.

“Nana, George, this is Jack Harkness, Mum’s new beau. Jack this is my grandmother Andromeda Tonks, and George Weasley.” Teddy introduced.

“So this is the one of the men that’s got my little sister in a twist.” George said with a smile, “I haven’t seen Harry this out of sorts for centuries, it’s good for her.”

“Oh, stop you.” Andromeda said and gave George a swat on the arm. “Don’t go giving Harry a hard time.”

Jack had already figured that these people, painting, ghost, whatever they were, were in fact Harry’s family. It was odd; he had never come across anything like the paintings that were before him. For all practical appearances they were just canvas and paint, but they were the most interactive representations of people he had come across, they almost seemed real.

“Well now I know where Harry got her good looks.” Jack said with a flirty grin.

“Well aren’t you a charmer, I see why Harry likes you. However I can’t take credit for Harry. As much as I see her has a daughter she is not my biological child.” Andromeda said.

“Harry is my godmother, but she raised me for much of my life. Nana passed away when I was 4, and Harry took me in, raising me as her own.” Teddy explained he had had to explain his relation to Harry many times over his life.

“Harry didn’t have much blood family, and what blood family she did have didn’t get along with. But she did have many friends that she considered family.” George said.

“So, none of you are related to Harry.” Jack asked.

That caused all of them to laugh.

“Well we are related to Harry in some way. She is in fact my second cousin once removed.” Andromeda said.

“And Harry is my third cousin on my father’s side, and my forth cousin on my mother’s. There is a lot of intermarrying between pureblood families.” George said with an amused.

Jack quickly picked up what they meant, inbreeding. Jack knew from his travels with the Doctor and his training with the Time Agency that in the past inbreeding was used to keep lines pure. It was a slightly disturbing thought that his soulmate what the product of inbreeding, in the 51st century it was a very sexually free time, but there was one taboo and that was having relations with anyone in your family unit no matter what their relation. Family units were often big and confusing to anyone who didn’t know how to read them, but there was no set number of people in a family unit and most where open in their relationships. People would form core family unit where they would raise children together and live together, but if there was someone who you were interested in outside of the family unit you were open to peruse them. However it was always expected that you would return to the family unit.

The reason that it was a taboo to have relations with members of the family unit that you came from was that there was no new DNA added. There was also the chance that your children would have defects that were not fixable by even their tech.

“George stop you know better.” Andromeda chides.

“Sorry Andy couldn’t help myself.” George said, never losing his smile.

“You can never help yourself, Uncle George.” Teddy said.

Jack watched their interactions with interest.

“What exactly are you, if you don’t mind me asking.” Jack asked.

“Holey Oil.” George answered looking too amused with himself.

“George.” Andy warned as she gave him another whack.

“Well he is kinda right, Nana.” Teddy said with a sly grin, obviously enjoying George’s cheekiness.

“Stop the both of you.” Andy said before addressing Jack. “We are portraits of our real selves as they were at the time we were painted. Basically and imprint of our Magic, everything that we were, was imprinted on the painting giving it animation. We don’t know anything past them moment of the imprint but we have all the memories until that point.”

“So you are not alive?” Jack asked.

“No, think of us like an interactive memory.” Andy said.

“So who are you to Harry?” Jack asked looking at George as his relationship hasn’t been explained.

“Well I was her fiancé’s twin brother before he was murdered when she was 17.” George said, as he seemed to age in a matter of seconds.

There was an awkward silence in the room. Jack realised that he had stepped on a land mine. He hadn’t know that Harry had once been engaged, she didn’t speak of it, and from what Jack remembered from her background her fiancé must have been killed during the Blood War, as she called it. He then thought back to earlier in the conversation when they had said that Harry hadn’t open her heart since she was 17 and realised that it was the death of her fiancé that closed her off.

“So that is the reason that she closed herself off to others.” Jack stated, voicing his conclusions.

“Well there was that as well as the whole ‘Mistress of Death’ thing.” Teddy said.

That raised Jack’s eyebrow; that was not a term that he had heard before.

“Mistress of Death?” Jack asked.

“It was a children story before Harry.” Andy said, before explaining. “Three Brothers were said to have cheated Death with their magic, so Death said he rewarded them by giving them a gift. The oldest brother asked for an unbeatable wand, the middle brother asked for a way, and the youngest brother asked for a way to hind even from death. Death broke of a piece of a nearby tree and gave it to the oldest brother, which became the Elder Wand. Death then took a stone from the river and gave it to the middle brother, which then became the Resurrection Stone. Then Death reluctantly gave the youngest brother a piece of Death’s own cloak, which became the Cloak of Invisibility. Then Death then left them.

“The oldest brother went to a tavern where he bragged that he had an unbeatable wand, before challenging his rival to a duel, he beat the man easily. That night as the eldest brother slept someone slipped into his room and slit his throat and took the Elder Wand. Death happily collected the soul of the first brother. The Middle brother returned from and used the stone to resurrect his death wife, but she was only an intangible shade. He was happy for a time, but his wife grew sadder with each passing day and it drove the middle brother mad. So the man killed himself so that he would be with his wife. Death happily collected the soul of the second brother.

“Death who was so pleased that his plan had work went looking for the youngest brother, but he wasn’t able to find him. The third brother had out smarted Death; he was able to hind from Death with Death’s own cloak. The last brother lived a full live until he was old, then he gave the Cloak his oldest son, before going to meet Death as an old friend.”

“That is a pretty depressing children story.” Jack said, after she was done.

“Well it’s no worse than Sleeping Beauty,” Andy grumbled, and the other two nodded in agreement.

“I don’t understand how that story has anything to do with Harry.” Jack stated, not understanding the connection to Harry or with the Mistress of Death.

“Well every story has a grain of truth. The brothers were from the Peverell family, and Harry is descendant of the youngest brother. All the Deathly Hollows, the artifacts, that were told of in the story are real and Harry has all of them. Her family’s cloak was given to her when she was 11, she was given the stone after our Headmaster passed, and she won the wand from her parents’ murderer when she was 17 in the same battle that cost my brother’s life.” George explained.

“There is a second part to the story that no one really talked about. There was a legend that if one collected all the Deathly Hollows that their owner would be the Master of Death.” Teddy said, his hair turning dark blue, “There was only one person in history that has had all of them in their possession, and that was Mum. She told me that she tried to get rid of them, but they would keep reappearing. Other than that it seemed like there was no other side effects. It wasn’t until she was almost 40 that she realised that that there was another side effect, even at 40 she still looked like she was 23 when she magic had finally settled.”

“I thought that Magi aged a lot slower than Humans.” Jack said, remembering what Harry had told him about her people.

“Yes, but we still age. The average life expectancy of a Magi was around 200 years barring any accidents. Harry on the other hand is almost 600 years old; immortality is not a Magi trait.” Andy said.

Jack froze at the word immortality like a deer in the head lights. He didn’t know how to react to the knowledge that Harry couldn’t die, much like himself. On one hand he was elated that he wouldn’t be alone, and on the other he was filled with dread because Ianto was still mortal. He was also conflicted because he had hoped that the Doctor would be able to fix him so that he could live and die with his soulmates, but now it wasn’t an option. Sure he would still look for the Doctor, he wanted to know what had happened to him, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to be cured.

Jack fled from the room ignoring the calls from the painting; he left the manor into the garden. He found a marble bend not too far from manor, not wanting to run into something that lived in the green space. He sat in silence, but his thoughts were racing.

Sometime later, Jack was not too sure how much time had passed, Harry sat down beside him. She was dressed in a ratty old hoddie and old jeans, her hair was still wet and dripping. They sat in silence for a while before Harry broke it.

“Teddy was quite distressed when he found me. He told me that they had been talking to you about the Deathly Hollows and what it means that I have them.” Harry said.

“I can’t die.” Jack blurted. He was normally more composed but he was having a major crisis and had promised himself that he wouldn’t close himself off to his soulmates.

Harry just stared at him wide eyed, completely caught off guard, so Jack continued.

“Well that’s not completely true, I can die I just can’t stay dead. I’m killed and then I just wake up with no injuries. It takes different amounts of time to recover, the more traumatic the death the longer it takes, but I always come back. I have no idea why I’m like this” Jack just rushed out.

There was a moment of silence before Harry spoke. She left somewhat silly, the fairies had called Jack the Undying One, but she had thought that it was because they hadn’t been able to kill him, and not that he was immortal.

“It is different for me. I am always aware even after I’ve died, but in a detached way. I don’t feel pain after I die but I away know what is going on around me. The more violent the death the faster I recover and more fully I recover. If the death didn’t have traumatic injuries I sometimes come back only healed enough to be alive, but my advance healing will take care of the injuries over time.” Harry explained, tears rolling down her face. “I know why I can’t die, I’m the Mistress of Death and I am the one person Death can never take.”

Jack wrapped his arms around Harry as she cried.

“We will outlive Ianto, and that breaks my heart.” Harry sobbed.

“Is there nothing that we can do?” Jack asked his voice broke as tears slowly ran down his face at the injustice of being immortal.

“I have things that would extend his life, but he could still be killed, and the processes are not perfect. He would still leave us.” Harry said as she tried to compose herself as she wiped her tears away.

“So we will lose him.” Jack said sadly.

“Yes.” Harry agreed, her tears renewing. She cursed Death for giving her what she wanted but would eventually take away.

Ianto found them almost an hour later still on the bench. Harry face was puffy but her tears had dried; Jack face was grim making Ianto wonder who had died.

“What happened?” Ianto asked confused. He thought that if someone had died that the two of them would have woken him up.

Harry burst into tears again and threw herself at Ianto wrapping her arms around him as she cried into his chest; knocking the two of them onto the grass. Ianto was bewildered as he looked to Jack for and explanation as he hugged Harry. Ianto felt even more bewildered when Jack joined them on the grass and wrapped his arms around the two of them and pressed a kiss to Ianto head.

“What is going on?” Ianto asked, completely bewildered.

Ianto barely made out the sobbed words that were mumbled into his chest, but he sobered at them as he realised what had happened.

“Do you both have realised that I’m going to die, while the two of you live on.” Ianto said. His voice was coldly matter of fact, as he had already realised and accepted that he was going to die.

Harry burst into a new round of tears.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Jack asked. Ianto was much too calm.

“Yes. I figured out that you were immortal when a Weevil killed you, but then you got up like you hadn’t had your throat ripped out. I figured out that Harry was immortal by what she had told me, and talking to the portraits in the manor.” Ianto told them.

“And you’re just fine with that.” Harry said angrily, tears still streaming down her face.

“No, but I’ve accepted that I’m going to die. I’m already living on borrowed time. I shouldn’t have survived Canary Wharf, and I’ve been with Torchwood since I was 17. I’m well over half way through the average life expectancy of Torchwood agent.” Ianto said completely accepting that he would die before his soulmates. Ianto had accepted that he would die after the events of Canary Wharf when he had seen almost all of his coworkers die in horrific ways.

Harry just continued to cry, she had known that she would lose people due to her immortality, but it had been centuries since she would loss someone that she had cared about. She also had come to the conclusion that along with the immortality that the title of Mistress of Death granted her, there was also apathy to the people around her.

Jack felt his heart break that the stoic way that Ianto took his own mortality, but in a way nothing had changed for Ianto. Death was the inevitable conclusion to life, and all mortals had to accept that fact, even if they lived in denial that death would come for them. It was only once someone was faced with the fact that they could never die did once think upon the mortality of everyone around them and realised that they would all leave you, one way or another.

“Let not focus on this.” Ianto said, it was depressing thinking of his own death, and he wanted to have as many happy times as he could with his soulmates. “Come on, let’s go inside. I think that we all could use a rest.”

Jack nodded in agreement, as he helped Harry to her feet. She was barely able to walk as sobs would rack her body, even as she tried to stop the flood of emotions.

**Author's Note:**

> Updated 2017-02-13


End file.
